title: Characterization of CD133+ hepatocellular carcinoma cells as cancer stem/progenitor cells.
abstract: The CD133 antigen, identified as a hematopoietic stem cell marker, appears in various human embryonic epithelia including the neural tube, gut, and kidney. We herein investigated whether CD133(+) cells isolated from human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines possess cancer stem/progenitor cell-like properties. Among the three cell lines studied, the CD133 antigen was found to be expressed only on the surface of Huh-7 cells. CD133(+) cells from Huh-7 performed a higher in vitro proliferative potential and lower mRNA expressions of mature hepatocyte markers, glutamine synthetase and cytochrome P450 3A4, than CD133(-) population of Huh-7 cells. When either CD133(+) or CD133(-) cells were subcutaneously injected into SCID mice, CD133(+) cells formed tumors, whereas CD133(-) cells induced either a very small number of tumors or none at all. Taken together, the identification of CD133(+) cells could thus be a potentially powerful tool to investigate the tumorigenic process in the hepatoma system and to also develop effective therapies targeted against hepatocellular carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu 501 1194, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Suetsugu
authors.forename: Masahito
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagaki
authors.forename: Hitomi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Motohashi
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kunisada
authors.forename: Hisataka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moriwaki
mesh_terms: D000071916:AC133 Antigen; D000818:Animals; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D016513:Mice, SCID; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation / Q000473:pathology; D010455:Peptides / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D000071916:AC133 Antigen; D015703:Antigens, CD; D006023:Glycoproteins; C000606023:PROM1 protein, human; D010455:Peptides; C000606024:Prom1 protein, mouse