Mel-18基因与肿瘤

Mel-18 gene and neoplasms

黑色素瘤核蛋白-18（Mel-18）基因是多梳基因（PcG）家族核心成员之一，在胚胎形成、细胞生长和增殖、干细胞自我更新的调节中发挥重要作用。Mel-18基因表达异常与人类肿瘤的发生、发展过程有关。作为肿瘤抑制基因，Mel-18基因通过对B淋巴瘤Mo-MLV插入区域1（Bmi-1）和髓细胞癌基因（c-myc）的转录抑制而抑制肿瘤增长。Mel-18表达在许多肿瘤细胞的转录水平和翻译水平减少，其中包括乳腺癌、前列腺癌和胃癌等肿瘤，有望成为一种新的肿瘤预后标志物。

Mel-18 gene is one of the core members of the PcG （polycomb group） family, which plays an important role in embryogenesis, cell growth and proliferation and self-renewal of stem cells. Mel-18 gene expressing abnormally has been related to human tumorigenesis, development process. Mel-18 serves as a tumor suppressor gene and inhibits tumor growth through transcriptional repression of Bmi-1 and c-myc. Mel-18expression is decreased at transcriptional and translational levels in most human cancers including breast cancer, prostate cancer, and gastric cancer and other tumors. Mel-18is expected to become a prognostic marker for human cancers.