[The relationship between telomerase activity and cell cyele in acute leukemia cells]

To explore the change of telomerase activity in acute leukemia (AL) cells and its relationship with cell cycle, PCR-ELISA was used to detect telomerase activity of bone marrow cells from 148 AL patients, including 92 cases with acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) and 56 cases with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Thirty-six patients without bone marrow disorders were detected as normal control. The cell cycle of 16 patients and 4 controls was detected with flow cytometry. The results showed that the positive rate of telomerase was 71.6% (106/148) in the cells from AL patients, which was higher than that in the control group 5.6% (2/36). It was 88.9% (32/36) in the relapse group and 81.3% (61/75) in the untreated group. Both rates were higher than that in the CR group (35.1%, 13/37). There was no significant difference in the ALL and ANLL groups. The cell number in various phases of cell cycle had no significant difference between telomerase positive and negative groups. It was concluded that the activation of telomerase was very common in acute leukemia cells. Telomerase positive rate was closely associated with the different stages and progress of acute leukemia, and it might be a molecular marker for increased proliferation of leukemic cells during the process of the disease. Activation of telomeras had no correlation with cell number in different phases of cell cycle, while telomerase activity is modulated by other biological factors in addition to cell cycle.