[Telomere shortening in the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the role of telomere shortening in the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

METHODS

Southern blotting was employed to determine the mean telomere length (MTL) in 42 tumor samples and 15 samples of the tissues adjacent to the tumors obtained from 42 NPC patients, along with the tissue specimens from 17 patients with chronic nasopharyngitis.

RESULTS

In NPC tissues, the length of the MTL was 4.5+/-2.3 kb, obviously shorter than those of the MTL in tissues adjacent to the tumor 14.6+/-2.8 kb and in chronic nasopharyngitis 15.8+/-3.1 kb.

CONCLUSION

Telomere shortening may play an important role in the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal epithelium cell malignancies.