Abstract
Purpose
To identify the side population (SP) cells from four hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines with stepwise metastatic potentials.
Methods
SP cells were sorted from HCCLM3, MHCC97-H, MHCC97-L and Hep3B by flow cytometry, and then analyzed by differentiation study, clonogenic assay, chemoresistance study and tumorigenicity assay in vivo. The expression of ABCG2 in SP cells was detected by immunocytochemistry, western blotting and real-time quantitative PCR, respectively.
Results
There was significant difference in SP proportion among HCCLM3, MHCC97-H, MHCC97-L and Hep3B (28.7 ± 1.6%, 14.5 ± 0.6%, 4.2 ± 0.4%, 0.9 ± 0.1%, respectively, P < 0.01). All the SP cells showed similar characteristics of self-renewal, high clonogenicity, remarkable chemo-resistance and high expression of ABCG2. As low as 2,000 SP cells could initiate tumors in non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency mice successfully.
Conclusions
SP cells purified from HCC cell lines harbors cancer stem cell-like properties, and may be related to the metastatic potentials and therapeutic-resistance of HCC.
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Abbreviations
- HCC:
-
Hepatocellular carcinoma
- SP:
-
Side population
- ABCG2 :
-
ATP-binding cassette transporter family G2
- BCRP1:
-
Breast cancer resistance protein1
- MP:
-
Main population
- CSCs:
-
Cancer stem cells
- NOD/SCID:
-
Non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency
- FCM:
-
Flow cytometry
- PI:
-
Propidium iodide
- LIF:
-
Leukemia inhibitory factor
- 5-FU:
-
5-Fluorouracil
- MMC:
-
Mitomycin C
- ICC:
-
Immunocytochemistry
- TACE:
-
Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization
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Acknowledgments
We thank Drs. Guo-ping Zhang for his expertise in flow cytometry. This study was combinedly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (30500594, 30571801); Shanghai Science and Technology Development Funds (06QA14012); Foundation of Shanghai Science Technology Commission (07JC14010, 06xD14004, 044119608); the Program for Excellent Disciplinary Leaders of Shanghai Health Bureau (LJ06004) and the Foundation of China National “211” Project for Higher Education. The funding agencies had no role in the design, conduct, decision to report or writing of the study.
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Guo-Ming Shi and Yang Xu contributed equally to this work.
This is an original work by all the authors and no previous presentations, reports, or publications contain any material that appears in the article.
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Shi, GM., Xu, Y., Fan, J. et al. Identification of side population cells in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines with stepwise metastatic potentials. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 134, 1155–1163 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-008-0407-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-008-0407-1