The experimental study on telomerase activity and expression of p53 and c-myc genes in tongue cancer / 华西口腔医学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study telomerase activity and expression of oncogenes c-myc and p53 in tongue cancer, analyse the interaction among them, and assess their possible correlations with tongue cancer clinicopathological features.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>To detective the telomerase activity by TRAP and examine the positive expression of c-myc and p53 in tongue cancer by hybridization in situ.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A high telomerase activity existed in lower differentiated tongue cancer (P < 0.05); the positive expression of c-myc increased significantly in lower grade tongue cancer (P < 0.05) and the positive expression of p53 decreased increasingly in tongue cancer accompanied with lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Telomerase may play a key role in the tumorigenesis of tongue cancer. Meantime, c-myc and p53 exerts important effect on telomerase activation during the course of tongue cancer generation and development.</p>