Role of nucleostemin in growth regulation of gastric cancer, liver cancer and other malignancies.

AIM To examine the role of nucleostemin in the growth regulation of gastric cancer, liver cancer and other cancers. METHODS RT-PCR was used to clone the fragment of nucleostemin cDNA from HEK 293 cells. Eighteen kinds of malignant tumor tissues including gastric adenocarcinoma and liver cancer tissues, 3 kinds of benign tumor tissues, 3 kinds of benign hyperplastic tissues and normal tissues were employed to examine nucleostemin gene expression by RT-PCR, Slot blot, Northern blot and in situ hybridization. RESULTS We successfully cloned a 570 bp fragment of nucleostemin-cDNA from HEK-293 cells. All detected malignant tumor tissues, benign tumor tissues, and benign hyperplastic tissues had high levels of nucleostemin expression. Nucleostemin was also expressed in human placenta tissue at a high level. In terminally differentiated normal human adult kidney and mammary gland tissues, no nucleostemin expression could be detected. CONCLUSION Nucleostemin can help regulate the proliferation of both cancer cells and stem cells. It might play an important role in the growth regulation of gastric cancer, liver cancer and other cancers.