Telomeres shorten progressively with age in normal somatic cells in culture and in vivo. The
maintenance of telomere length is assumed to be an obligatory step in the progression and
immortalization of most human tumor cells. To understand the role of telomere dynamics in
the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we examined the length of terminal
restriction fragment (TRF), as an indicator for telomere length, in HCC and surrounding
tissues with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) or liver cirrhosis (LC). The study was performed in …