title: FUP1, a gene associated with hepatocellular carcinoma, stimulates NIH3T3 cell proliferation and tumor formation in nude mice.
abstract: Human primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)is one of the highly prevalent malignant diseases worldwide, the identification of HCC-associated genes has been a major approach in elucidating the molecular mechanism of tumorigenesis of HCC. In our previous studies, a function-unknown gene, which displayed marked expression difference between the HCC sample and normal liver control has been detected by cDNA microarray. This gene was named after fup1 (function-unknown protein 1), and was cloned according to the data of GenBank. The cDNA of fup1 has an open-reading frame 1233 base pairs in size. Here, the function analysis of FUP1 related to HCC is being reported. The NIH3T3 cells transiently transfected with FLAG-conjugated FUP1 revealed strong nuclear staining in immunofluorescent assay. Furthermore, cell proliferation enhancing activity of fup1 was shown by MTT assay in stable transfectant NIH3T3 cell line with pcDNA3-derived plasmid having fup1 under the regulation of pCMV, while cell proliferation repressing activity of antisense fup1 was observed in BEL7404 stable transfectant cells. Tumorigenicity of the above stable transfectant cells was analyzed in nude mice compared with appropriate controls. The result was in good agreement with MTT assay. Elevated tumorigenicity of fup1 transfected NIH3T3 cell and repressed tumorigenicity of antisense fup1 transfected BEL7404 cell were clearly demonstrated. The results above suggested that fup1 might be a critical gene related to carcinogenesis of HCC. Detailed molecular function of fup1 remains to be elucidated.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue-Yang Road, Shanghai, 200031, China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Q S
authors.initials: QS
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D016475:3T3 Cells; D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000378:metabolism*; D002455:Cell Division; D002460:Cell Line; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016376:Oligonucleotides, Antisense / Q000378:metabolism; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D013997:Time Factors; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; C436517:BTBD7 protein, human; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D016376:Oligonucleotides, Antisense; D004247:DNA