As An Oncogene
Evidence for the identification of H19 as an oncogene:
- Overexpression of H19 appears to be important in the development of esophageal and colorectal cancer cells
- Cells expressing H19 are able to form bigger colonies in soft agar in anchorage-independent growth assays as compared to the control.
- Downregulation of H19 in breast and lung cancer cells decreases their clonogenicity and anchorage-dependent growth
- Subcutaneous injection of H19 into mice promoted tumor progression
- Tumors formed by injection of bladder carcinoma cells into mice express H19; prior to the injection, these bladder carcinoma cells did not express H19.
- Ectopic H19 expression in vivo enhances the tumorigenic potential of carcinoma cells
- c-Myc, an oncogene that functions as a regulator of gene transcription, induces H19 expression
- Knocking down H19 in hypoxic stress diminishes p57 induction
Evidence against the identification of H19 as an oncogene:
- The amount of H19 RNA transfected into breast cancer cells did not affect: cell proliferation, cell cycle timing or anchorage-dependent growth
- Tumorigenic mesenchymal stem cells express high levels of H19 compared with non-tumorigenic mesenchymal stem cells. Knock-down of H19 in the tumorigenic cells reduced their tumor forming capacity significantly
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