Xq24

ZNF-kaiso,ZNF348

Lung cancer

Immunohistochemical analysis of 294 cases of non-small cell lung cancer, including 50 cases of paired lymph node metastases, revealed a correlation of cytoplasmic Kaiso staining with poor prognosis, and shRNA-mediated knockdown of Kaiso enhances proliferative and invasive capabilities of several lung cancer cell lines.

Colon cancer

Kaiso has been shown to repress expression of methylated tumor suppressor genes, and depletion of Kaiso sensitizes colon cancer cell lines to chemotherapy. Moreover, Kaiso is upregulated in intestinal tumors in mice, and a delayed onset of intestinal tumorigenesis is observed when Kaiso-null mice are crossed with the tumor-susceptible Apc^Min/+ mice.

Gastric cancer

A study of the Helicobacter pylori-induced inflammatory response, which, if persistent, increases the risk for gastric adenocarcinoma, revealed that H. pylori induces nuclear translocation of the Kaiso-binding partner p120-catenin. Nuclear p120-catenin then relieves Kaiso-mediated repression of MMP-7, which is often overexpressed in premalignant and malignant gastric lesions.

Vertebrate development

Injection of Xenopus laevis embryos with morpholinos targeting xKaiso leads to a developmental delay during gastrulation. Initially, Kaisos roles in both general transcription repression and in regulation of canonical and non-canonical Wnt-signaling were thought to contribute to this phenotype, but subsequent studies determined that Kaisos main role in early Xenopus development is restricted to the maintenence of transcriptional silencing. However, disruption of the Kaiso gene in mice did not reveal any abnormalities in development or gene expression.