Changes of telomere lengths in human intracranial tumours

The termini of human chromosomes comprise stretches of G-rich repeats that are about 5-20 kilobase (kb) in length. The size of the telomeres can be determined by hybridization with probes specific for these (ttaggg)n sequences after digestion of chromosomal DNA with appropriate restriction enzymes and electrophoretic separation of the fragments. Here, probing with the 32P-labelled synthetic (TTAGGG)3 oligonucleotide revealed length changes of the telomeres occurring in intracranial tumours. Among 60 samples, analysed, 41.7% showed telomere elongation, and 21.7% telomere reduction, whereas 36.7% of the tumours exhibited equal lengths compared with the patients' peripheral blood leukocytes. Most of the elongated glioma telomeres exceeded in length those of untransformed astrocytes derived from human fetal tissue.