Two cases of adult Still’s disease with abnormally high level of telomerase activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Abstract

We report two patients with adult Still’s disease with an abnormally high level of telomerase activity. The first patient was a 61-year-old woman. The mean telomerase activity value for peripheral blood mononuclear cells of healthy adults measured by our method was 0.13 ± 0.03, whereas that in this patient during the active phase was abnormally high, at more than 27.56. The patient was treated by steroid therapy and successfully brought into remission, during which the telomerase activity value for peripheral blood mononuclear cells was reduced to 2.22. The second patient was a 19-year-old man. Although he stayed in remission after steroid therapy, a reduction in the steroid dose resulted in recrudescence, at which time the telomerase activity value peripheral blood mononuclear cells was high, at 11.76. Elevated levels of telomerase activity have been reported in patients with various pathological conditions other than malignant tumors. However, our literature search failed to reveal a report on such a high level of telomerase activity in association with a benign disease.