{"doi":"10.1515/hsz-2015-0255","title":"Ectopic overexpression of Nanog induces tumorigenesis in non-tumorous fibroblasts","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n<jats:p>Key regulatory genes in pluripotent stem cells are of interest not only as reprogramming factors but also as regulators driving tumorigenesis. <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> is a transcription factor involved in the maintenance of embryonic stem cells and is one of the reprogramming factors along with <jats:italic>Oct4</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Sox2</jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>Lin28</jats:italic>. <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> expression has been detected in different types of tumors, and its expression is a poor prognosis for cancer patients. However, there is no clear evidence that <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> is functionally involved in tumorigenesis. In this study, we induced overexpression of <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> in mouse embryonic fibroblast cells and subsequently assessed their morphological changes, proliferation rate, and tumor formation ability. We found that <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> overexpression induced immortalization of mouse embryonic fibroblast cells (MEFs) and increased their proliferation rate <jats:italic>in vitro</jats:italic>. We also found that formation of tumors after subcutaneous injection of retroviral-<jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> infected MEFs (N-MEFs) into athymic mouse. Cancer-related genes such as <jats:italic>Bmi1</jats:italic> were expressed at high levels in N-MEFs. Hence, our results demonstrate that <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> is able to transform normal somatic cells into tumor cells.</jats:p>","journal":"Biological Chemistry","year":2016,"id":618840,"datarank":0.26876392038420827,"base_score":1.791759469228055,"endowment":1.791759469228055,"self_citation_contribution":0.26876392038420827,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.26876392038420827,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":5,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1596730,"name":"Judee Grace E. Nemeño","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1032790,"name":"Na Young Choi","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1596734,"name":"Jeong Ik Lee","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":770194,"name":"Kisung Ko","orcid":"0000-0003-4964-0845","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1596739,"name":"Seung-Cheol Choi","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1596742,"name":"Wan Seop Kim","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1596744,"name":"Dong Wook Han","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":124906,"name":"Natalia Tapia","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1596746,"name":"Kinarm Ko","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1596729,"name":"Yo Seph Park","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Ectopic overexpression of Nanog induces tumorigenesis in non-tumorous fibroblasts","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n<jats:p>Key regulatory genes in pluripotent stem cells are of interest not only as reprogramming factors but also as regulators driving tumorigenesis. <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> is a transcription factor involved in the maintenance of embryonic stem cells and is one of the reprogramming factors along with <jats:italic>Oct4</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Sox2</jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>Lin28</jats:italic>. <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> expression has been detected in different types of tumors, and its expression is a poor prognosis for cancer patients. However, there is no clear evidence that <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> is functionally involved in tumorigenesis. In this study, we induced overexpression of <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> in mouse embryonic fibroblast cells and subsequently assessed their morphological changes, proliferation rate, and tumor formation ability. We found that <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> overexpression induced immortalization of mouse embryonic fibroblast cells (MEFs) and increased their proliferation rate <jats:italic>in vitro</jats:italic>. We also found that formation of tumors after subcutaneous injection of retroviral-<jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> infected MEFs (N-MEFs) into athymic mouse. Cancer-related genes such as <jats:italic>Bmi1</jats:italic> were expressed at high levels in N-MEFs. Hence, our results demonstrate that <jats:italic>Nanog</jats:italic> is able to transform normal somatic cells into tumor cells.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":1.791759469228055,"endowment":1.791759469228055,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"26733157","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2418163426","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":0.0,"citation_percentile":0.02891593,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2020,"count":2},{"year":2021,"count":2},{"year":2023,"count":1}],"oa_status":"closed","license":null,"oa_locations":[{"url":"http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bchm.2016.397.issue-3/hsz-2015-0255/hsz-2015-0255.xml","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1515/hsz-2015-0255","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26733157","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Pluripotent Stem Cells Research","Renal and related cancers","Epigenetics and DNA Methylation","Animals","Carcinogenesis","Cell Transformation, Neoplastic","Cells, Cultured","Fibroblasts","Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic","Homeodomain Proteins","Mice","Mice, Inbred C57BL","Mice, SCID","Nanog Homeobox Protein","Up-Regulation"],"mesh_terms":["Nanog Homeobox Protein","Animals","Cell Transformation, Neoplastic","Cells, Cultured","Fibroblasts","Mice, Inbred C57BL","Up-Regulation","Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic","Mice, SCID","Homeodomain Proteins","Mice","Carcinogenesis"],"keywords":["Homeobox protein NANOG","SOX2","Reprogramming","Carcinogenesis","Embryonic stem cell","Rex1","Biology","BMI1","Cancer research","LIN28","Nanog Homeobox Protein","Somatic cell","Stem cell","Induced pluripotent stem cell","Cell biology","Ectopic expression","Cancer stem cell","Molecular biology","Cancer","Cell culture","Gene","Genetics"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-03T05:24:26.419260Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}