Detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications.

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein capable of replacing telomeric DNA sequences that are lost at each cell division. Under normal circumstances, it is active in rapidly dividing embryonic cells and in stem cell populations but not in terminally differentiated somatic cells. Much attention has recentl...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yoshida, K., Sugino, T., Goodison, S., Warren, B. F., Nolan, D., Wadsworth, S., Mortensen, N. J., Toge, T., Tahara, E., Tarin, D.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group|1 1997
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2063304/
id pubmed-2063304
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-20633042009-09-10 Detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications. Yoshida, K. Sugino, T. Goodison, S. Warren, B. F. Nolan, D. Wadsworth, S. Mortensen, N. J. Toge, T. Tahara, E. Tarin, D. Research Article Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein capable of replacing telomeric DNA sequences that are lost at each cell division. Under normal circumstances, it is active in rapidly dividing embryonic cells and in stem cell populations but not in terminally differentiated somatic cells. Much attention has recently focused on the hypothesis that activity of this enzyme is necessary for cells to become immortal. This predicts that telomerase activity should be detectable in malignant cells and tissues but not in their normal counterparts, which slowly senesce and die. In accordance with this notion, telomerase activity has been reported in a wide range of malignancies, including those of the gastrointestinal tract, breast and lung. In the present study, we used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay for telomerase activity, designated the "telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP)', to examine initially 35 colonic carcinomas, their corresponding normal tissues and 12 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) lesions. We detected strong enzyme activity in 32 (92%) of the 35 colon carcinomas while there was no activity in 30 (86%) of 35 matched normal colonic tissue specimens and only very weak activity in the remainder. Four of seven specimens of ulcerative colitis and two of five Crohn's disease lesions were negative, and the rest were only weakly positive. These results led us to examine whether telomerase could be detected in carcinoma cells exfoliated into the colonic lumen. We assayed lysates of exfoliated cells in luminal washings from colectomy specimens of 15 patients with colon carcinoma and nine with IBD. Telomerase activity was detected in washings from 9 (60%) of the 15 colon carcinoma cases but not in any from cases with IBD, suggesting that it can be a good marker for the detection of colon carcinoma, possibly even in non-invasively obtained samples. Nature Publishing Group|1 1997 /pmc/articles/PMC2063304/ /pubmed/9052409 Text en
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Yoshida, K.
Sugino, T.
Goodison, S.
Warren, B. F.
Nolan, D.
Wadsworth, S.
Mortensen, N. J.
Toge, T.
Tahara, E.
Tarin, D.
spellingShingle Yoshida, K.
Sugino, T.
Goodison, S.
Warren, B. F.
Nolan, D.
Wadsworth, S.
Mortensen, N. J.
Toge, T.
Tahara, E.
Tarin, D.
Detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications.
author_facet Yoshida, K.
Sugino, T.
Goodison, S.
Warren, B. F.
Nolan, D.
Wadsworth, S.
Mortensen, N. J.
Toge, T.
Tahara, E.
Tarin, D.
author_sort Yoshida, K.
title Detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications.
title_short Detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications.
title_full Detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications.
title_fullStr Detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications.
title_full_unstemmed Detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications.
title_sort detection of telomerase activity in exfoliated cancer cells in colonic luminal washings and its related clinical implications.
description Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein capable of replacing telomeric DNA sequences that are lost at each cell division. Under normal circumstances, it is active in rapidly dividing embryonic cells and in stem cell populations but not in terminally differentiated somatic cells. Much attention has recently focused on the hypothesis that activity of this enzyme is necessary for cells to become immortal. This predicts that telomerase activity should be detectable in malignant cells and tissues but not in their normal counterparts, which slowly senesce and die. In accordance with this notion, telomerase activity has been reported in a wide range of malignancies, including those of the gastrointestinal tract, breast and lung. In the present study, we used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay for telomerase activity, designated the "telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP)', to examine initially 35 colonic carcinomas, their corresponding normal tissues and 12 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) lesions. We detected strong enzyme activity in 32 (92%) of the 35 colon carcinomas while there was no activity in 30 (86%) of 35 matched normal colonic tissue specimens and only very weak activity in the remainder. Four of seven specimens of ulcerative colitis and two of five Crohn's disease lesions were negative, and the rest were only weakly positive. These results led us to examine whether telomerase could be detected in carcinoma cells exfoliated into the colonic lumen. We assayed lysates of exfoliated cells in luminal washings from colectomy specimens of 15 patients with colon carcinoma and nine with IBD. Telomerase activity was detected in washings from 9 (60%) of the 15 colon carcinoma cases but not in any from cases with IBD, suggesting that it can be a good marker for the detection of colon carcinoma, possibly even in non-invasively obtained samples.
publisher Nature Publishing Group|1
publishDate 1997
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2063304/
_version_ 1611406057230303232