Telomerase activity in radiation-induced chronic human skin ulcers.

An increasing activity of telomerase is considered to be a reliable molecular biological marker for malignancy. There is much research work on telomerase detection in malignant tumors, but no such investigation was carried out in chronic skin ulcers induced by radiation. We investigated the levels of telomerase activity in radiation-induced chronic human skin ulcers and the possible relationship between the enzyme and cancer transformation. We used the nonisotopic telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) in 20 cases of chronic human skin ulcers induced by radiation, 5 cases of normal skin, 2 of burned skin, and 5 of carcinoma. Our results showed that the positive rate for telomerase activity was 30% in chronic radiation skin ulcers, 0% in normal and burned skin, and 100% in carcinoma. The telomerase activity in radiation ulcers was weaker than that detected in carcinoma. We suggest that the telomerase activity assay could be used as a marker for predicting the prognosis and the effect of treatment in chronic human skin ulcers induced by radiation.