Spatiotemporal expression of NRAS and occurrence of giant congenital melanocytic nevi

The mechanism underlying giant congenital melanocytic nevus (GCMN) formation is not fully understood. According to recent research, NRAS gene mutation is the main driving factor in GCMN. Melanocytic precursor cells proliferate during the embryonic stage after acquiring NRAS mutations. However, why GCMN undergoes intense proliferation in the embryonic stage and then stops postnatally remains unknown. The current theory for this phenomenon is that the GCMN undergoes oncogene-induced senescence. However, there is not enough evidence to indicate that senescence induces growth arrest in GCMN. In this study, we hypothesized that the expression level of the NRAS gene changes dynamically during the development and differentiation of neural crest cells into melanocytes and that the NRAS expression level determines whether the cell proliferates or becomes quiescent.