NOTCH1 and gastric cancer: A study by Zhang et al. [9] found that NICD, an activated form of Notch1, was detectable in SHG-44 and U87 cell lines, and that these two gastric cancer cell lines proliferated faster than gastric cancer cell lines without detectable NICD; overexpression of NICD in SHG-44 cells promoted SHG-44 cell growth and colony formation; these colonies expressed nestin for cells with a neural stem cell phenotype.