A Novel Role Of GATA6 in Rhabdomyosarcoma. (c2016)

Abstract

One of the major events during embryogenesis is skeletal muscle formation. Over the years, this developmental process has been of great interest to many scientists. There’s no cancer in skeletal muscles. However, some cells are known to express differentiation markers such as Myf5 and MyoD; these are the Rhabdomyosarcoma cells (RH30 and JR1). They harbor skeletal muscle characteristics, express early markers of differentiation but fail however in forming myotubes. The movement of cells from the proliferation to the differentiation stage is controlled by a specific group of myogenic factors. Deregulation of these transcription factors result in muscular defects and skeletal muscle diseases. GATA6 is one of the myogenic factors that was found to be expressed in rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines and might play a role in down-regulating cellular proliferation and causing cell death. The objective of this study is to understand the role of GATA6 in Rhabdomyosarcoma by assessing its expression at the transcriptional level and studying the effect of its down-regulating, by specific siRNA, on cell cycle and cellular proliferation. Real time PCR was used to assess the expression of GATA6 in Rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines and Flow Cytometry was used to study the effect of inhibition on the cell cycle. GATA6 was shown to be expressed at the proliferation and differentiation stage. Down-regulation of GATA6 by siRNA reduced the cellular proliferative potential and caused cell death. We conclude that the down-regulation of GATA6 could represent a potential venue to develop drugs against rhabdomyosarcoma.