[The biological behavior of hepatocarcinoma stem cells in rats].
OBJECTIVE
To study the biological behavior of hepatocarcinoma stem cells in rats.


METHODS
Primary liver carcinomas were induced in rats using diethylnitrosamine. Tumor cells from 8 rats were separated according to rats oval cell (OVC) markers CD34, c-Kit, Thy-1, AFP, CK7, CK8, CK14, CK18, CK19 and GGT and then they were separately injected into the livers of nude mice. The tumors grown from the different subpopulation of OVC markers in the nude mice livers (10 OVC markers negative or positive cells) were weighted 1 month after the inoculations. The hepatocarcinoma cell subpopulations with higher ability in causing tumor growths were further studied in vitro. The cell cycles and DNA content of those subpopulation cells were investigated using flow cytometry.


RESULTS
(1) Subpopulation cells with CK7(-), Thy-1(+) and AFP(+) markers had a higher ability in causing tumors in nude mice; (2) Subpopulation cells, exhibiting characters of TSC, had a low growth rate in vitro.


CONCLUSIONS
(1) Different subpopulations of hepatocarcinoma cells had different abilities in causing tumors in rats. Some subpopulation cells, such as CK7(-), Thy-1(+) and AFP(+) cells, have characteristics of tumor stem cells. (2) The hepatocarcinoma stem cells may have a low growth rate in vitro.
Zhou
Si-lang
SL
Oncology Department, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, China.
Li
Peng
P
Cao
Man-ming
MM
Zhang
Ji-ren
JR
D000818:Animals; D002453:Cell Cycle; D018844:Cyclin-Dependent Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008114:Liver Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D018800:Thy-1 Antigens / Q000096:biosynthesis; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000096:biosynthesis
D018844:Cyclin-Dependent Kinases; D018800:Thy-1 Antigens; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins; C090586:Cdk7 protein, mouse