Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Detection of Alternative Splicing During Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
Published on: October 9, 2014
Changes of the alternative splicing variants of human telomerase reverse transcriptase during gastric carcinogenesis
Jin-Heng Xu1, Yu-Chuan Wang, Xin Geng
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tianjin Medical University, Heping District, Tianjin, China.
Objective:
We attempted to reveal the changes of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) alternative splicing pattern in gastric carcinogenesis.
Methods:
Three alternative splicing sites (alpha, beta, gamma) were selected and designed PCR primer. The expression of 8 hTERT alternative splicing variants (ASVs) in normal gastric mucosa, precancerous lesions and gastric cancer were detected by seminested RT-PCR. The expression of beta-site remaining ASV (beta(+) ASV) in specimens of precancerous lesions and specimens of gastric cancer was detected by SYBER Green real-time PCR.
Results:
The positive rate of alpha(+)beta(+)gamma(+) ASV was significantly higher in gastric cancer than in precancerous lesions and normal mucosa (94.7 vs. 40.0% and 0%, p < 0.05). The positive rates of other ASVs were not different among the 3 groups (p > 0.05). The positive rates of beta(+) ASVs (including alpha(+)beta(+)gamma(+) ASV, alpha-deletion ASV, gamma-deletion ASV, alphagamma-deletion ASV) were 11.1% in normal mucosa, 40.0% in precancerous lesions and 94.7% in gastric cancer (p < 0.05). SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR showed that the expression level of beta(+) ASV was 6.99 times higher in gastric cancer than in precancerous lesions.
Conclusion:
hTERT alternative splicing pattern is different during gastric carcinogenesis. beta(+) ASV was widely expressed in gastric carcinogenesis and may provide some information for diagnosis of gastric cancer or precancerous lesions.
Related Concept Videos
RNA Splicing
Telomeres and Telomerase
Alternative RNA Splicing
There are five types of alternative RNA splicing that vary in the ways the pre-mRNA segments are removed or retained in the mature mRNA. The first...
Non-LTR Retrotransposons
Replicative Cell Senescence
The Ras Gene
Ras is a superfamily...

