Growth and Differentiation Effects of Homer 3 on a Leukemia Cell Line

The Homer protein family, also known as the family of cytoplasmic scaffolding proteins, which include three subtypes (Homer1, Homer2, Homer3) (Brakeman et al., 1997; Xiao et al., 1998). Homer3 can regulate transcription and play a very important role in the differentiation and development for some tissues (e.g. muscle and nervous systems) (Ishiguro et al., 2004; Shiraishi et al., 2004; Bortoloso et al., 2006). Current studies showed that Homer3 were abnormal expressed in blasts in AML (Stirewalt et al., 2008) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) (data not shown). And decreased expression for Homer3 was associated with a poor outcome in AML (Valk et al., 2004). Our study will try to reveal the function of Homer3 in the leukemia cell line.