Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.7.6 (RNA polymerase)
 34,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Despite recent extensive immunohistochemical studies, the expression patterns of CD44 in testicular germ cell tumors are still controversial. In the present study, we investigated the CD44 gene expression in 40 specimens including 18 seminomas, 16 nonseminomatous germ cell tumors (NSGCT), and 6 normal testes by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that the standard CD44 isoform (CD44s) was expressed in all of the specimens, whereas the variant CD44 isoforms were highly expressed in NSGCTs but barely detectable in seminomas and normal testes. In addition, we confirmed by direct DNA sequence analysis that the predominantly expressed variant isoform in NSGCTs was CD44v8-10. In germ cell tumors, these results were paralleled in Western blot analysis; that is, CD44s protein was expressed in all of the tumor specimens, whereas high molecular weight variant isoforms were expressed only in NSGCTs. However, at the protein level, no detectable CD44 was expressed in normal testes. These findings show that the combined assessment of CD44 expression patterns at both the RNA and protein levels enables us to distinguish among seminoma, NSGCT, and normal testis specimens; hence, it could serve as a useful practical adjunct to conventional diagnostic methods for testicular germ cell tumors.
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PMID:Expression patterns of CD44 adhesion molecule in testicular germ cell tumors and normal testes. 958 83

The expression of five (sst1-sst5) somatostatin (SRIF) receptor mRNAs was compared between normal and tumoral testicular samples diagnosed as either seminoma or non-seminoma. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis indicated that all testicular tissues studied (total of 24) contained sst5 receptor transcripts, whereas the sst2 was absent in all of them. In contrast to the normal tissue samples, both types of tumors (total of 12) did not contain sst4 transcripts. sst3 mRNA was expressed in normal and non-seminoma samples, but not in seminomas. sst1 transcripts were not found in normal and seminoma tissues. However, all studied non-seminomas contained this mRNA. Our data thus points to a specific pattern of SRIF receptor mRNA expression in each type of the samples analyzed. Moreover, they further indicate that the presence of sst1 and sst3 transcripts might be used as an additional criterion to distinguish between seminoma and nonseminoma tumors.
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PMID:Somatostatin receptor expression profile as a potential criterion for discrimination between seminoma and non-seminoma testicular tumors. 1171 51

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs), comprised of seminomas and non-seminomas, are derived from premalignant and noninvasive intracellular germ cell neoplasias. Among TGCTs, seminomas are believed to resemble a transformed state of primordial germ cells (PGCs) and are known to exhibit a gene expression profile similar to that of embryonic stem (ES) cells, such as transcription factor OCT-4. OCT-4 has recently been recognized as a diagnostic marker for clinical aspects of seminomas. However, the role of the OCT-4 protein in seminomas has not been clarified. To determine a possible role of the OCT-4 protein in seminomas, in this paper, we studied a series of 41 testicular tumor tissues and four cell lines by immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to examine the expression and distribution of the OCT-4 transcription factor in seminomas. By utilizing immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting, we demonstrated that the OCT-4 transcription factor was aberrantly localized in the cytoplasm and nuclei of cells in the collected seminoma tissues. This observation was further confirmed using immunocytochemical staining of NCCIT (seminoma-embryonal carcinoma) and NT2 (embryonal carcinoma) cells. In addition, the RT-PCR results indicated that Oct-4 mRNA was relatively highly expressed in NCCIT, NT2 cells, and seminoma tissues when compared with human embryonic stem cells. The aberrant expression and distribution of the OCT-4 transcription factor in seminomas may provide some important clues concerning the cell transformation between germ line stem cells (like PGC) and testicular germ cell tumors.
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PMID:Aberrant expression and distribution of the OCT-4 transcription factor in seminomas. 1768 39