Effect of Nanog expression on the differentiation of human NPC cell line

• Main Authors: Hsin Lun Li, 李欣倫
• Other Authors: J. K. Chen
• Format: Others
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/09438236723013016449

碩士 === 長庚大學 === 基礎醫學研究所 === 96 === In 2003, Chambers and Mitsui have found that Nanog is expressed specifically in undifferentiated embryonic stem (ES) cells and have shown that it is essential for the maintenance of pluripotency in ES cells. Nanog is highly expressed in ES cells and embryonic carcinoma (EC) cells, but it is usually not expressed in adult tissues, suggesting Nanog is crucial in preventing cell differentiation. Recently, Nanog has also been found to be expressed in some tumours. Piestun D et al. (2006) showed that Nanog can be oncogenic and transforms fibroblasts. It suggests that Nanog may be related to cancer cell proliferation and differentiation. The role of PKC in carcinogenesis has been recognized for decades. PKC isoforms are often overexpressed in disease states such as cancer. Mutations in cancer related genes eventually lead to the development of cancer. Vast majority of the studies have demonstrated that PKC activity is associated with differentiation of cancer cells. In this paper we showed that Nanog can be induced by PKC inhibitors in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line, NPC076, suggesting that Nanog may be involved in PKC induced differentiation of NPC cell lines.