Study on Telomerase Activity in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid.

VernacularTitle:気管支肺胞洗浄液中のテロメラーゼ活性についての検討
Author: Tadashi ARAI ; Yo YASUDA ; Yuji ITO ; Kazuyoshi HAYAKAWA ; Tadatake TAKAYA ; Satoshi TOSHIMA ; Chiken SHIBUYA ; Naoki YOSHIMI ; Yoshitomo KASHIKI
Publication Type:Journal Article
From:Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 1997;46(4):679-682
CountryJapan
Language:Japanese
Abstract: Telomerase has been reported to increase its activity in more than 80% of human pulmonary cancer tissue samples, thus potentially contributing to cancer diagnosis. This led us to try the measurement of telomerase activity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in cases clinically suspected to be primary pulmonary cancer. Methodologically, the measurement was made by means of TRAP (telometric repeat amplification protocol) assay, a high-sensitivity assay system using the technique known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The resultsshowed that telomerase activity in all the 6 cases, diagnosed as primary lung cancer histologically, was positive. On the other hand, on cytologic examination, 4 out of these 6 cases were positive, and the remaining 2 cases (squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma) were negative. Histologic examination revealed that of these 4 cases, 2 and 2 were pulmonary cancers and pulmonary tuberculoses, respectively. The above results suggested that examination of telomerase activity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid may be useful for cancer diagnosis clinically.