Recent studies found that the stem cell-related genes Sox2, Oct4 and Klf4 are among the target genes regulated by microRNA-145 (miR-145), suggesting that miR-145 possibly plays a role in the maintenance of cancer stem cells.
Loss of KLF4 expression is closely related to the genomic loss, and its restoration inhibits cancer cell proliferation, suggesting a key suppressor role in pancreatic tumorigenesis.
In conclusion, this finding suggests that KLF4 may be an important factor for the maintenance of the developmental and the tumorigenic potential of IGCNU as well as for the malignancy of seminoma.
KLF4 is associated with terminal differentiation in colorectal epithelium and drastically downregulated in colorectal adenomas and cancers via possible epigenetic modifications.