Telomerase activity: Simplification of assay and detection in bladder tumor and urinary exfoliated cells

Abstract Detection of telomerase activity can differentiate malignant from benign cells. However, the original telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) methods had a number of limitations including a radioisotope labeling [α 32 P] dCTP [α 32 P] dGTP system. We developed digoxigenin labeled CX primer to detect telomerase activity without using radioisotope and attempted to detect telomerase activity of bladder tumor and exfoliated cells in bladder cancer patients. Telomerase activity was detected in 5 (71%) of 7 patients diagnosed with grade 1, 31 (97%) of 32 grade 2, and 11 (100%) of 11 grade 3 bladder tumors. In urinary exfoliated cells, 32 (82%) of 39 grades 1 or 2 bladder tumors were positive for telomerase activity but 20 (51%) of 39 were positive for urinary cytology ( P