Relative Telomere Length in Cervical Exfoliated Cells among Women with High-Risk Human Papillomavirus

Abstract

Introduction: This study investigates and compares the relative telomere length (RTL) outcome of high-risk (hr) human papillomavirus (HPV)-infected normal, low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) cervical samples to HPV-free normal cervical samples. Methods: This study used archived cervical samples and obtained cytology and histology data. HPV genotyping was conducted using Sanger sequencing, and RTL was performed using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results: This study investigated 287 cervical samples, including 100 normal and hr-HPV-negative samples from the control group, 44 normal and hr-HPV-infected samples, and 143 SIL and hr-HPV-infected samples. The RTL in hr-HPV-infected samples, including the SIL and normal sample groups, was significantly longer than that in the control group. RTL in HSIL (5.13 ± 3.22) and LSIL (2.86 ± 2.81) was significantly different (p < 0.001). The RTL of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN1) lesion (3.53 ± 2.53) differed significantly (p < 0.001) when compared to CIN2 and CIN3 lesions combined (12.04 ± 10.51). The risk of developing cervical cancer was associated with RTL and decreased with RTL. Conclusion: This study revealed the strong potential of the RTL test in identifying women at risk of developing cervical cancer.