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Expression of telomerase activity in cholesteatoma otitis media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2006

Eui-Kyung Goh
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Pusan Korea
Byung-Joo Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Pusan Korea
Soo-Geun Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Pusan Korea
Kyong-Myong Chon
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Pusan Korea
Chul-Min Kim
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Pusan Korea

Abstract

Telomerase maintains the length of telomeres in immortal cells and is also often associated with cell proliferation. Cholesteatoma epithelium is characterized by a dysregulation with hyperproliferative growth. The study evaluated the telomerase activity in cholesteatoma and normal retro-auricular skin to discover the relationship between telomerase expression and clinical findings. Twenty-two samples of cholesteatoma and 15 samples of retro-auricular skin were obtained from patients undergoing middle-ear surgery. The telomerase activity was detected by the telomerase repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay method. Seventeen of the 22 (77.3 per cent) cholesteatoma cases expressed telomerase activity, whereas none of the 15 retro-auricular normal skin (0 per cent) detected telomerase activity. There was no significant difference between telomerase expressions and clinical findings, including hearing level, duration of disease, and the degree of extension (p>0.05). The high expression of telomerase in cholesteatoma suggests that the activation of telomerase may be related to the proliferative nature of cholesteatoma.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Royal Society of Medicine Press Limited 2001

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