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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2015; 21(1): 311-317
Published online Jan 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i1.311
Published online Jan 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i1.311
Common telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter mutations in hepatocellular carcinomas from different geographical locations
Dilek Cevik, Gokhan Yildiz, Mehmet Ozturk, BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey
Dilek Cevik, Gokhan Yildiz, Mehmet Ozturk, Centre de Recherche Inserm-Université Joseph Fourrier U823, La Tronche 38706, France
Mehmet Ozturk, Advanced Biomedical Research Center, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir 35340, Turkey
Author contributions: Cevik D and Yildiz G performed the experiments; Ozturk M designed and coordinated the study; Cevik D and Ozturk M wrote the manuscript.
Supported by TUBITAK, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, No. 113S389, TUBITAK (BIDEB-2211), TUBITAK (BIDEB-2211 and BIDEB-2214) and EMBO short term fellowships
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Mehmet Ozturk, PhD, Professor of Medical Biology, Advanced Biomedical Research Center, Dokuz Eylul University, Balcova, Izmir 35340, Turkey. mehmet.ozturk@deu.edu.tr
Telephone: +90-232-4126501 Fax: +90-232-4648135
Received: April 12, 2014
Peer-review started: April 12, 2014
First decision: May 13, 2014
Revised: June 3, 2014
Accepted: July 11, 2014
Article in press: July 11, 2014
Published online: January 7, 2015
Peer-review started: April 12, 2014
First decision: May 13, 2014
Revised: June 3, 2014
Accepted: July 11, 2014
Article in press: July 11, 2014
Published online: January 7, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Our study demonstrated that telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutations are present in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) from different geographical regions, and the highest frequency was observed in tumors from Africa. These mutations occur both primarily as C228T mutation and as C250T mutation. These results also provide evidence for TERT mutations as a common trait of HCC regardless of their geographical location.