Genes involved in regulation of stem cell properties: studies on their expression in a small cohort of neuroblastoma patients

Abstract

Cancer stem cells have been isolated from many tumors. Several evidences prove that

neuroblastoma contains its own stem cell-like cancer cells. We chose to analyze  20 neuroblastoma

tumor samples in the expression of 13 genes involved in the regulation of stem cell properties to

evaluate if their misregulation could have a clinical relevance. In several specimens we detected the

expression of genes belonging to the OCT3/SOX2/NANOG/KLF4 core circuitry that acts at the

highest level in regulating stem cell biology. This result is in agreement with studies showing the

existence of malignant stem cells in neuroblastoma. We also observed differences in the expression

of some stemness-related genes that may be useful for developing new prognostic analyses. In fact,

preliminary data suggests that the presence/absence of UTF1 along with differences in BMI1

mRNA levels could distinguish low grade neuroblastomas from IV stage tumors.