@article { author = {Eskandari, Ebrahim and Hashemi, Mohammad and Naderi, Majid and Bahari, Gholamreza and Safdari, Vahid and Taheri, Mohsen}, title = {Leukocyte Telomere Length Shortening, hTERT Genetic Polymorphisms and Risk of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia}, journal = {Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention}, volume = {19}, number = {6}, pages = {1515-1521}, year = {2018}, publisher = {West Asia Organization for Cancer Prevention (WAOCP), APOCP's West Asia Chapter.}, issn = {1513-7368}, eissn = {2476-762X}, doi = {10.22034/APJCP.2018.19.6.1515}, abstract = {Background: Telomeres are involved in chromosomal stability, cellular immortality and tumorigenesis. Humantelomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) is essential for the maintenance of telomere DNA length. Recently, a variabletandem-repeats polymorphism, MNS16A, located in the downstream region of the TERT gene, was reported to havean effect on TERT expression and telomerase activity. Previous studies have linked both relative telomere length(RTL) and TERT variants with cancer. Therefore, we evaluated associations between RTL, TERT gene polymorphisms(hTERT, rs2735940 C/T and MNS16A Ins/Del) and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in an Iranianpopulation. Methods: RTL was determined by a multiplex quantitative PCR-based method, and variants of the hTERT,rs2735940 C/T and MNS16A Ins/Del, were genotyped by amplification refractory mutation system PCR (ARMS-PCR),and PCR, respectively. Results: Our results indicated that RTL was shorter in ALL patients (1.53±0.12) compared tothe control group (2.04±0.19) (P=0.029). However, no associations between hTERT gene variants or haplotypes andthe risk of childhood ALL were observed (P>0.05). Also hTERT polymorphisms were not associated with RTL orpatient clinicopathological characteristics, including age (P=0.304), sex (P=0.061) organomegally (P=0.212) CSFinvolvement (P=0.966) or response to treatment (P=0.58). Conclusions: We found that telomere attrition may berelated to the pathogenesis of childhood ALL, irrespective to TERT variants.}, keywords = {Telomere Length,TERT genetic polymorphisms, Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia}, url = {https://journal.waocp.org/article_63275.html}, eprint = {https://journal.waocp.org/article_63275_e41c358ffd01fbf2fc0f12670d849d3d.pdf} }