The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is a very large structure made up of at least 50 different proteins that span the double membrane of the nuclear envelope functioning as a gateway for macromolecular traffic between the cytoplasm and the nucleus (Nakielny and Dreyfuss,1999). Discrete nuclear pore complex proteins or nucleoporins such as NUP98, NUP180 and p62 have been implicated in autoimmune disease and cancer. Patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) frequently produce autoantibodies against p62 and NUP180 (Wilken et al., 1993; Nesher et al., 2001) while NUP98 translocations have been found in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) (Jaju et al. 2001).
