[Techniques for detection of telomerase activity in tissue samples. Diagnostic and prognosis importance]

Telomerase activation has been shown to be an almost universal property of malignant tumors evoking its role in the immortalisation process. We used the recently described sensitive and rapid detection assay called telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) to detect telomerase activity in neoplastic and non neoplastic tissues. Human telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein which functions as a telomere terminal transferase by adding multiple repeats of the TTAGGG hexamer at the 3'-OH ends of either telomeres or oligonucleotide specifically designed for the TRAP assay. Whenever present, telomerase activity is revealed on acrylamide gel by a six nucleotide ladder of extension products. Detection of telomerase activity may be evaluated for differentiating neoplastic from non neoplastic tissues. In addition, quantitation of telomerase activity may serve as prognostic marker for malignant tumors.