Dysregulated expression of stem cell transcription factor Nanog in development and progress of ovarian cancers

Poster Session 14 - PO.TB02.05: Cancer Stem Cell Biology 1: abstract no. 4233Introduction: Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of all gynecological malignacies due to its lack of symptoms at early stages. In addition, widespread intraperitoneal metastases and malignant ascites frequently develop. Therefore, it is very important to identify novel prognostic and therapeutic targets for this cancer. Many researchers believe that only a small subset of cancer cells are endowed with stem cell properties, which are responsible for tumor growth, metastatic progression and recurrence. Nanog is one of core transcription factors essential for the maintaining self-renewal and pluripotency in stem cells. This study investigated the clinical significance, functional roles and putative downstream targets of Nanog in ovarian cancer. Methods and Results: Differential protein expression profile of Nanog in clinical samples, including benign (n=6), borderline (n=7), carcinomas (n=97) and metastatic foci (n=24) were determined by immunohistochemistry. Differential mRNA expression pattern of Nanog in 3 normal ovarian epithelial cell lines, 16 ovarian cancer cell lines was assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Subcellular localization of Nanog was performed by Western blotting. Nanog was found to be localized in the nucleus of ovarian cancers. High Nanog expression in ovarian cancers was significantly associated with high grade tumors, serous histological type and chemoresistance (p