Author/Editor		Grubelnik, Gašper; Boštjančič, Emanuela; Pavlič, Ana; Kos, Marina; Zidar, Nina
Title		NANOG expression in human development and cancerogenesis
Type		članek
Publication year		2020
Volume		str. str.
ISSN		1535-3702 - Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.)
Language		eng
Abstract		NANOG is an important stem cell transcription factor involved in human development and cancerogenesis. Its expression is complex and regulated on different levels. Moreover, NANOG protein might regulate hundreds of target genes at the same time. NANOG is crucial for preimplantation development phase and progressively decreases during embryonic stem cells differentiation, thus regulating embryonic and fetal development. Postnatally, NANOG is undetectable or expressed in very low amounts in the majority of human tissues. NANOG reexpression can be detected during cancerogenesis, already in precancerous lesions, with increasing levels of NANOG in high grade dysplasia. NANOG is believed to enable cancer cells to obtain stem-cell like properties, which are believed to be the source of expanding growth, tumor maintenance, metastasis formation, and tumor relapse. High NANOG expression in cancer is frequently associated with advanced stage, poor differentiation, worse overall survival, and resistance to treatment, and is therefore a promising prognostic and predictive marker. We summarize the current knowledge on the role of NANOG in cancerogenesis and development, including our own experience. We provide a critical overview of NANOG as a prognostic and diagnostic factor, including problems regarding its regulation and detection.
Keywords		NANOG stem cells cancerogenesis NANOG matične celice kancerogeneza