Odorant receptor genes are expressed in olfactory neuroblastoma

Olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) is a malignant tumor found in the human nasal cavity. These tumors are rare and poorly characterized at the molecular level. In this study, we asked whether olfactory-specific genes are expressed in ONBs by using reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. We found that the olfactory marker protein and the RIC-8B genes, which are specifically expressed in mature olfactory neurons, are expressed in ONBs. Importantly, we also found that ONBs express a large variety of odorant receptor genes, representative of different odorant receptor gene subfamilies. Our results show that the ONBs express genes that are normally expressed in mature olfactory neurons and indicate that they are derived from progenitor or immature cells in the olfactory epithelium and not from a clonal expansion of a single or few mature olfactory neurons.