Evaluation of Nucleostemin Gene Expression as a New Molecular Marker in Breast Tumors

Abstract: Background & Aims: Nucleostemin is one of the stem cell enriched proteins which encodes a novel nucleolar GTP-binding protein found at high levels in the adult and embryonic stem (ES) cells but not in terminally differentiated cells. It is also expressed in tumor cell lines as well as in the several types of human cancers. Due to the increasing rate of breast cancer in recent years, in the present study we evaluate the usefulness of Nucleostemin as a potential diagnostic and therapeutic molecular marker in breast tumors. Methods: A total of 41 tumoral and 20 non-tumoral adjacent tissues were studied by Semiquantitative Reverse Transciptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). β2m was used as an internal control. Data were analyzed through SPSS software. Results: According to the obtained results, nucleostemin is a proliferation marker with higher eapression in breast tumors rather than in adjacent normal tissues. Nucleostemin expression level was significantly correlated with profilertion potential of breast benign tumors (p< 0.05). The expression of Nucleostemin was significantly correlated with the advanced stages of breast tumors (p<0.05). Conclusion: Nucleostemin expression level may be used in estimating tumor size and as a potential prognostic marker for determinig breast tumors stage and future metastases. Moreover, nucleostemin inhibition can be an effective sterategy in decreasing the proliferation of breast tumor cell lines. Keywords: Nucleostemin, Breast neoplasms, Reverse Transcriptace Polimeras Chain Reaction (RT-PCR