www.oncotarget.com Oncotarget, 2018, Vol. 9, (No. 67), pp: 32775-32794 Research Paper PLAGL1 gene function during hepatoma cells proliferation Ana F. Vega-Benedetti1, Cinthia N. Saucedo1, Patrizia Zavattari2, Roberta Vanni2, Felix Royo3, Francisco Llavero4,5,6, José L. Zugaza4,5,6 and Luis A. Parada1 1Institute of Experimental Pathology, CONICET-UNSa, Salta, Argentina 2Biochemistry, Biology and Genetics Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato SP 8, Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy 3CIC BioGUNE-CIBERehd, Bizkaia Technology Park, Derio, Spain 4Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience, UPV/EHU Technology Park, Leioa, Spain 5Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Spain 6IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain Correspondence to: Luis A. Parada, email:
[email protected] Keywords: PLAGL1; hepatocellular carcinoma; cell proliferation; chromosome; methylation Received: March 26, 2018 Accepted: July 31, 2018 Published: August 28, 2018 Copyright: Vega-Benedetti et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ABSTRACT Hepatocellular carcinoma develops as a multistep process, in which cell cycle deregulation is a central feature, resulting in unscheduled proliferation. The PLAGL1 gene encodes a homonym zinc finger protein that is involved in cell-proliferation control. We determined the genomic profile and the transcription and expression level of PLAGL1, simultaneously with that of its molecular partners p53, PPARγ and p21, in cell-lines derived from patients with liver cancer, during in vitro cell growth.