Cloning of HumanENC-1and Evaluation of Its Expression and Regulation in Nervous System Tumors

We recently identified and characterized a novel murine gene,ENC-1,that is expressed primarily in the nervous system and encodes an actin-binding protein. To gain insight into a potential role forENC-1gene in the processes of cell differentiation and malignant transformation in the human nervous system, we first cloned and characterized the human homologue ofENC-1.The humanENC-1gene appeared to be highly expressed in adult brain and spinal cord, and in a number of cell lines derived from nervous system tumors we detected low steady-state levels ofENC-1mRNA. We used a neuroblastoma differentiation model, the retinoic acid-induced neuronal differentiation of SMS-KCNR cells, to study the regulation of theENC-1gene during neural crest cell differentiation. We found that the expression ofENC-1increased dramatically in the differentiated SMS-KCNR cells as compared to control undifferentiated cells. These results suggest thatENC-1expression plays a role during differentiation of neural crest cells and may be down regulated in neuroblastoma tumors.