POU5F1 and embryonal carcinoma: In humans, DMSO has been shown to be able to down-regulate mRNA and protein expression of pluripotency genes of Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog in embryonic stem cells [17, 18] and embryonic carcinomas cells [43], and up-regulate the protein expression of tumor suppressor gene Pten through activation of NF-κB in promyelocytic leukemia cells [44].