Volume 18, Issue 2 (9-2004)                   Med J Islam Repub Iran 2004 | Back to browse issues page

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KAZEMI NOUREINI S, ZIAEE A, RASTEGAR-JAZlI F, AZDANBOD M. TELOMERASEACTIVITYIN IRANIAN PATIENTS WITH ESOPHAGEAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA. Med J Islam Repub Iran 2004; 18 (2) :147-152
URL: http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/article-1-635-en.html
TELOMERASEACTIVITYIN IRANIAN PATIENTS WITH ESOPHAGEAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA
S KAZEMI NOUREINI , AA ZIAEE , F RASTEGAR-JAZlI , MY AZDANBOD
From the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics. P 0. Box: 13145-1384. University of Tehran. Tehran. , aa_ziaee@yahoo.co.uk.
Abstract:   (5351 Views)
Telomerase activation is one of the main pathways to immortalize cancer cells. In many kinds of cancer cells, this special reverse transcriptase stabilizes and elongates telomeres and prevents telomere erosion that naturally occurs in every cell division. Esophageal cancer is the fifth most frequent cause of cancer death worldwide, and is highly associated with alcohol, smoking, cultural habits, and environmental factors. Telomerase has been suggested as a tumor marker and a molecular target for drug design in several kinds of cancers. In this work telomerase activation was inspected among Iranian patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC), and detected in 90% of samples of different stages. This may be an indication that telomerase activation happens in an initial step in the development of ESCC. Although there is no correlation between telomerase activity and the progress of ESCC, it could be considered as a good tumor marker in ESCC. Telomerase activity tests are suggested for screening purposes in high risk areas for ESCC, which can be easily done on a small amount of scrapped samples of esophageal mucosa. It is also possible that ESCC results from incomplete differentiation or a failure in telomerase gene switching off that nonnally occurs during the differentiation of esophageal epithelial cells.
Keywords: telomerase, telomere, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, TRAP assay.
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Type of Study: Original Research: Basic Science in Medicine | Subject: Biological Sciences
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