Structure prediction analysis (14) of the short 3 0 UTR revealed the presence of a putative hairpin element, $50 nt upstream of the polyadenylation sequence and 40-50 nt downstream of the termination codon (12) . There are several examples of transcripts with similar structures within the 3 0 UTR, constituting cis-acting regulatory elements, involved in mRNA localization. Structural motifs (hairpins) present within the 3 0 UTR of c-fos (15) , c-myc (16) , MT-1 [metallothionein-1, (17) ], slow troponin C (18) and vimentin (19) mRNAs have been shown to be involved in targeting these mRNAs to the perinuclear cytoplasm and, presumably, anchoring them in this location by binding to cytoskeletal elements (20) . Hairpin elements within the 3 0 UTRs were also reported to stabilize transcripts by binding factors that protect against nuclease cleavage [e.g. binding of IRP protein to the IRE sequence in the 3 0 UTR of transferrin receptor mRNA, (21) ] and to re-program translation as in the case of the SECIS element which directs an insertion of selenocysteine into in-frame UGA codons (22) .