Article Abstract

DETECTION OF TELOMERASE ACTIVITY IN BRONCHOSCOPIC BRUSHING CELLS OF LUNG CANCER PATIENTS

Authors: Xing Zhang,Kejing Ying,Xinhan Cai,Ying Yuan,Shu Zheng

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic significance of the detection of telomerase activity in the brushing cells obtained from fiberobronchoscopy.

Methods: The techniques of TRAP-PCR-ELISA and TRAP-silver staining were employed to detect telomerase activity in 42 patients (57 samples) with pulmonary diseases.

Results: Telomerase activity in the lesion side of lung cancer patients (N=23) was significantly higher than that in the contralateral side of the same patient (P<0.05), and in patients with pneumonia (P<0.05). In 23 patients with lung cancer, 21 cases (91.3%) were showed positive in teiomerase activity, while only 12 cases (52.3%) were positively diagnosed by cytological smear examination (P<0.05). In 6 cases with cytological dysplasia of exfoliated cells, 5 (83.3%) were found to be telomerase activity positive.

Conclusion: Detection of telomerase activity in the brushing cells obtained from fiberobronchoscopy may be an effective and sensitive method in the diagnosis of pulmonary malignant diseases.

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