The expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase mRNA and its significance in acute leukemia / 中国实验血液学杂志

ABSTRACT

To investigate the expression of hTERT mRNA in bone marrow mononuclear cells (MNCs) from acute leukemia patients, the method of semi-quntitative RT-PCR was used to examine the expression of hTERT mRNA in marrow MNCs, and the telomerase activity of marrow MNCs was determined with the method of TRAP-PCR-ELISA by using a commercial kit. The results indicated that the expression of hTERT mRNA of marrow MNCs in 30 untreated AL patients was markedly higher than that in 12 CR cases (0.71 +/- 0.34 vs 0.43 +/- 0.25, P < 0.05) and 6 normal volunteers (0.71 +/- 0.34 vs 0.22 +/- 0.21, P < 0.01), respectively. Telomerase activity of marrow MNCs in 30 untreated AL patients was significantly higher than that in 12 CR cases (0.235 +/- 0.395 vs 0.012 +/- 0.015, P = 0.007). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between the hTERT mRNA synthesis and telomerase activity in AL cells (r = 0.421, P < 0.01). The pencentage of blast cells in marrow smear of the untreated AL patients was positively correlated with both the expression of hTERT mRNA and the telomerase activity of bone marrow MNCs (r = 0.457, P < 0.05 and r = 0.411, P < 0.05), respectively. It is concluded that the expression of hTERT mRNA in bone marrow MNCs from untreated AL patients was correlated with their telomerase activity. It is suggested that the expression of hTERT mRNA leukemic cells indicates their higher proliferation ability.