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Germ cell-like telomeric length homeostasis in nonseminomatous testicular germ cell tumors

Oncogene volume 19, pages 4075–4078 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Telomere maintenance plays an important role in cell proliferation and tumor survival. Human male germ cells, which carry long telomeres and express telomerase, give rise to a highly heterogeneous group of malignant tumors. We compared telomeric length and telomerase activity between two major histological types of primary testicular germ cell tumors. Fifteen out of 16 seminoma samples revealed telomeric restriction fragment (TRF) length below 13 kb; the remaining seminoma showed a major TRF fraction of 18 kb and a distinct minor fraction of above 23 kb length. In contrast, all 13 samples from nonseminomas showed TRF length ⩾23 kb, which is similar to that reported in human sperm. Nine out of 11 seminoma specimens and six out of seven nonseminomas studied showed moderate to high telomerase activity, the only telomerase-negative nonseminoma being pure mature teratoma. These results indicate to a major difference in telomeric length between seminomas and nonseminomas, which is apparently unrelated to the presence of telomerase activity, and suggest a germline-like homeostasis of telomeric length is preserved in human nonseminomas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biology, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Center and Institute of Oncology, 5 Roentgena St., Warsaw, 02-781, Poland

    Radoslawa Nowak & Agnieszka Piętas

  2. Department of Pathology, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Center and Institute of Oncology, 5 Roentgena St., Warsaw, 02-781, Poland

    Krzysztof Sikora

  3. Department of Urological Oncology, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Center and Institute of Oncology, 5 Roentgena St., Warsaw, 02-781, Poland

    Iwona Skoneczna

  4. Laboratory of Experimental Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences Medical Research Centre, 5 Pawinskiego St., Warsaw, 02-106, Poland

    Stanislaw J Chrapusta

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  1. Radoslawa Nowak
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Nowak, R., Sikora, K., Piętas, A. et al. Germ cell-like telomeric length homeostasis in nonseminomatous testicular germ cell tumors. Oncogene 19, 4075–4078 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1203746

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