Expression of NF45 correlates with malignant grade in gliomas and plays a pivotal role in tumor growth.

Nuclear factor of activated T cells 45 kDa (NF45), is a transcription factor that interacts with NF90 to regulate gene expression. It has been proved to be associated with tumor proliferation in various human malignancies. However, the role of NF45 in glioma is poorly understood. The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between NF45 expression and pathological grade in glioma and the impact of NF45 on the proliferation of glioma cells. Expression levels of NF45 are significantly elevated in high-grade human tissue samples compared with low-grade human glioma tissues samples (P < 0.0001) in Western blot analysis. The result of immunohistochemical also revealed that the expression of NF45 was overexpressed in 121 resected gliomas of different pathologic grades and associated with Ki-67. To investigate the role of NF45 in glioma carcinogenesis, we reduced the expression of NF45 by small interfering RNAs, and results showed suppression of cell proliferation, arrest of the cell cycle, and reduction in clone in vitro. Importantly, we show that SiNF45 can induce the expression of p21 and reduce the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and cyclin E. These findings indicate that NF45 plays an important role in the growth regulation of glioma cells, suggesting that NF45 maybe a molecular marker for pathology and a novel therapeutic target for malignant glioma.