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A large noncoding RNA is a marker for murine hepatocellular carcinomas and a spectrum of human carcinomas

Oncogene volume 26, pages 851–858 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Tumor markers can facilitate understanding molecular cell biology of neoplasia and provide potential targets for the diagnosis and insight for intervention. We here identify a novel murine gene, hepcarcin (hcn), encoding a 7-kb mRNA-like transcript. The gene appears to be the murine ortholog of the human alpha gene, that is, MALAT-1. The gene and homologs lack credible open reading frames, consistent with a highly conserved large noncoding RNA (ncRNA). In all nodules of procarcinogen-induced murine hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and human HCCs, expression was markedly elevated compared to the uninvolved liver. Quantitative analyses indicated a 6–7-fold increased RNA level in HCCs versus uninvolved liver, advancing this as a molecule of interest. This ncRNA was overexpressed in all five non-hepatic human carcinomas analysed, consistent with a potential marker for neoplastic cells and potential participant in the molecular cell biology of neoplasia.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs Paul Schimmel, Frank Chisari and Peiqing Sun for critical discussions about the manuscript, Dr Carolin Lanigan for assistance in statistics and Barbara Parker, Elizabeth M Boyd and Dr Jasimuddin Ahamed for assistance and manuscript preparation. This study was funded by NIH NHLBI Program Project HL-16411 and NIH NCI training Grant CA-75924. Sequence data of hepcarcin have been deposited to GenBank under accession number AY722410. RL wishes to dedicate this paper to his father, Mr Lin Zhigao, who had fought against cancer courageously and faded away at age 47 on 1984-10-9.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA

    R Lin, C Liu & T S Edgington

  2. Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    S Maeda & M Karin

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  1. R Lin
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  2. S Maeda
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  3. C Liu
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Correspondence to R Lin or T S Edgington.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on oncogene website (http://www.nature.com/onc).

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Lin, R., Maeda, S., Liu, C. et al. A large noncoding RNA is a marker for murine hepatocellular carcinomas and a spectrum of human carcinomas. Oncogene 26, 851–858 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1209846

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