Nucleostemin Plays Critical Role in Stem Cell Maintenance

Researchers have found that the protein encoded by the nucleostemin gene is necessary for maintaining the proliferative capacity of embryonic and adult stem cells, and possibly some types of cancer cells. Their findings were published in the December 1, 2002, issue of Genes & Development.

Nucleostemin was originally identified as a protein abundantly expressed in rat central nervous system stem cells that was markedly down-regulated during differentiation, suggesting a possible role in stem cell maintenance. In the current study, researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA) found that nucleostemin was expressed in various adult and embryonic stem cell populations, as well as in some human cancer cell lines, and that its expression was consistently turned off during the differentiation of stem cells into more specialized cell types.

First author Dr. RobertTsai explained, "The characterization of nucleostemin suggests that a unique primitive state is shared by both stem cells and cancer cell lines. The identification of common molecules shared by both stem cells and cancer cells may facilitate the discovery of self-renewing populations within a given tumor by evaluating their expression levels. Perhaps, in the future, targeting these cells will achieve a better therapeutic outcome.”



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