We found that primary urothelium (pU), primary renal epithelial cells (hREC), and the benign urothelial cell line HBLAK do not express hTERT at high levels, but show an increased hTAPAS expression through direct comparison to the adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) immortalized embryonic human kidney cell line HEK293, the urothelial carcinoma cell line SW1710, and the cervix carcinoma cell line HeLa. Here, TERT-DT is linked to urothelial carcinoma.