Telomerase activity, HPV presence and splice pattern of hTERT mRNA in cervical intraepithelial neoplasias and adjacent normal tissues

Abstract

Cervical cancers are characterized by the persistence of human papilloma virus (HPV) genome that is found in tissue samples starting from the early stages of tumor progression. Just like in other tumors, the activation of telomerase was observed in cervical carcinomas, but information about its expression was controversial. On model systems (cell lines) alternate splicing of human telomerase reverse transcriptase mRNA may take part in telomerase activity regulation.The aim of this study was to find possible correlations between the presence of HPV sequences, activity of telomerase and expression of different spliced forms of hTERT RNA in cervical intraepithelial neoplasias (CIN). The results show that HPV DNA is present in 60% of normal tissue adjacent to CIN lesions and up to 84% in CIN samples. Telomerase activity was found in 28% of adjacent normal tissue and in 68% of CIN II–III. hTERT RNA that encodes an active enzyme was present almost in all CIN samples. Variations in levels of telomerase activity are presumably not regulated by the splicing forms of hTERT mRNA with deletions.