Telomerase activity and regulation in human neuroepithelial tumors

Objective To investigate telomerase activity and expression of hTR and hTERT in human neuroepithelial tumors for exploring new strategy for clinical diagnosis and treatment. Methods Telomerase activity was detected by modified TRAP method and the expression of hTR and hTERT was measured by RT PCR method in 65 human neuroepithelial tumors, respectively. Results The positive rates of telomerase and hTERT were 61 5% and 70 8% respectively in human neuroepithelial tumors,and the positive rate and their level of expression were correlated with the degree of malignancy of tumors positively. Conclusions Telomerase activity and hTERT are significantly correlated with the degree of malignancy in human neuroepithelial tumors. hTERT may play a key role in the regulation of telomerase activity.