Do human normal somatic cells lack telomerase activity

I H A We read with great interest the report by ChangChien et al. 1] concerning the effect of acetic acid on telomerase activity n cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. We are convinced that cetic acid should not be used on the tissues submitted for elomerase assay to increase the detection rate. We disagree, owever, with the interpretation that human normal somatic ells lack telomerase activity. While reviewing the literature on telomerase activity n malignant and nonmalignant cells, we read the informaive articles by Taylor et al. [2], Yasumoto et al. [3], and ngelhardt et al. [4]. In these reports, it was emphasized hat although they were once thought to be cancer-cell pecific, it is becoming apparent that many proliferating ells express telomerase activity at a lower level. Among hese are human activated lymphocytes and several types of pithelium. A recent report by Mutirangura et al. [5] on defining a orrelation between telomerase activity and human papillomairus in normal control tissue and in benign, premalignant, and alignant cervical lesions demonstrated similar findings. A ow level of telomerase activity was detectible in normal cerical tissues and benign lesions and may be necessary for their hysiological proliferation. In light of these references, we stress that it is not likely that uman normal somatic cells lack telomerase activity.