ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression of telomerase in various lesions of adrenal cortex.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>By autoradiography-based telomeric repeat amplification protocol, telomerase expression was detected in 36 samples of adrenocortical lesions, including 29 cases adrenocortical adenoma (8 Cushing's syndrome, 17 aldosteronism and 4 nonfunctional adenomas), 5 cases of hyperplasia of adrenal cortex (presented with Chushing' syndrome), 2 cases adrenocortical carcinoma, and 4 samples of normal adrenal cortex.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 40 samples, 2 cases of adrenocortical carcinomas had telomerase expression, and the others had no telomerase expression detected.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>No significant telomerase expression was found among different endocrine functional benign adrenocortical lesions. Telomerase expression may be used as an important marker of malignant adrenocortical tumor.</p>