Background & objectives: The patients with lung carcinoma usually have high telomerase activity, the pseudopositive result is happen frequently when the test is done with traditional method. Telomerase activity is more strongly correlated with hTERT mRNA. This study was designed to detect the expression of telomerase hTERT gene in broncho-alveolar lavage fluid of the patients with lung carcinomas by relative quantitative RT-PCR method, to afford a useful tool for early and differentiate diagnosis of lung cancer.
Method: The exfoliated cells in broncho-alveolar lavage fluid from 20 human suspicion lung carcinomas and 10 health persons were analyzed for hTERT expression by relative quantitative RT-PCR method, in the same time a part of exfoliated cells were detected with pathologic method. After operation, pathologic detection was performed for all samples.
Results: Of 20 human suspicion lung carcinomas and, 19 patients were lung cancer, 1 patient was inflammatory pseudotumor in pathological diagnosis after operation. The relative expression of telomerase hTERT gene in 16 cases of 19 patients with lung carcinoma were detected with the relative quantitative RT-PCR, the positive rate is 84.2% (16/19), the expressions of telomerase hTERT gene were at various quantities, average levels is 0.42. The positive rate in exfoliated cells detected with pathologic method were 57.9% (11/19). There was a statistical difference between them(P < 0.01). Ten normal persons were hTERT gene expression negative.
Conclusions: Relative quantitative RT-PCR were more sensitive than cell morphologic method in detecting telomerase hTERT gene expression in broncho-alveolar lavage fluid of patients with lung carcinomas. Detecting quantitatively the levels of telomerase hTERT gene expression in broncho-alveolar lavage fluid will may be useful for early and differentiate diagnosis of lung carcinomas, especially for peripheral lung carcinomas.