Investigation of telomerase activity in diagnosis of endometrial and cervical cancer

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2007

Öğrenci: UĞUR ESKİOCAK

Danışman: UFUK GÜNDÜZ

Özet:

Human telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex that adds hexameric TTAGGG repeats to the ends of chromosomes in order to prevent their shortening. Telomerase activity has been evaluated for its diagnostic and prognostic value in cancer since it is observed in most malignancies but not in most normal somatic tissues. In this study telomerase activity was examined in tumor specimens obtained from cervix, endometrium and their non-cancerous regions by an improved telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) silver staining assay. Appearance of characteristic TRAP leader with 6 base pair increments indicate a positive result and was observed in all cancerous and some of the non-cancerous tissues. Telomerase activities of carcinoma tissues and normal counterparts were compared by densitometric analysis after PCR. Significantly higher telomerase activity was observed in cervical carcinoma samples compared to normal adjacent tissue. No significant difference was observed between endometrium carcinomas and normal endometrial tissue in terms of telomerase activity. High telomerase activity in normal endometrium restricts the use of assay for detection of carcinogenesis. However, in cervical tissues an accurate quantification of telomerase activity by TRAP silver stain assay may be valuable as a confirmatory assay.