Perinucleolar compartment

The perinucleolar compartment was first discovered on the periphery of the nucleus in 1992 by Andrea Getti et al. while studying the hnRNPI/PTB (polypyrimidine tract binding) protein.

In 1995, A. Gregory Matera et al. first gave the structure its name “perinucleolar compartment” after finding several RNA polymerase III transcripts as well as hnRNPI at the nucleolar rim.

[3] Sui Huang et al. has extensively researched the perinucleolar compartment and in 1997 were the first to study the PNC in a large number of human cancer cells.

[4] The PNC is a dynamic and irregular structure composed of multiple dense strands found primarily in transformed cancer cells.

In addition, many other small noncoding pol III RNA complexes which regulate pre-rRNA processing are localized in the PNC.

[7] Hence, these PNC proteins may play a role in RNA metabolism and research is continually being conducted to scientifically prove this.

Perinuclolar compartments form in blastomas, carcinomas, and sarcomas and exclusively represent malignant cells in solid tumor tissues.