Objective: To study the changes and significance of telomerase activity and telomere length in acute myelogenous leukemia.
Methods: TRAP-ELISA-PAGE was used to detect telomerase activity, Southern blot to estimate the length of telomere.
Results: Telomerase activity was significantly higher in AML(Absorption(A): 2.298 +/- 1.059) than in normal control(A: 0.387 +/- 0.598) and the mean telomere length of AML [(7.6 +/- 2.1) kb] was significantly shorter than that of normal control[(9.3 +/- 1.9) kb]. The alteration of the telomere length was detected mainly in telomerase-positive AML.
Conclusions: It suggested that there was a close relationship between telomerase activity and telomere length in AML. The activation of telomerase might play an important role in the genesis and development of AML and telomere length changes may correlate with the activation of telomerase.