The cancer stem cell marker CD133 has high prognostic impact but unknown functional relevance for the metastasis of human colon cancer.
In colon cancer, CD133 has recently been used to enrich for a subset of tumour cells with tumour-initiating capabilities and was therefore suggested to mark colon cancer stem cells. However, this molecule has surprisingly been shown to lack functional importance for tumour initiation itself. Herein, we investigated whether CD133 may be relevant for colon cancer metastasis in patients, and as metastasis requires several additional biological characteristics besides tumour initiation, we examined the effects of knocking down CD133 expression in colon cancer cell lines on proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony formation. We demonstrate that high CD133 expression correlates strongly with synchronous liver metastasis in a matched case-control collection, while siRNA-mediated knock down of this factor has no significant effect on the mentioned biological characteristics. Thus, we conclude that CD133 expression is a marker with high prognostic impact for colon cancer, while it seems to have no obvious functional role as a driving force of this malignancy.
Horst
David
D
Pathologisches Institut der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Thalkirchner Strasse 36, 80337 München, Germany. david.horst@med.unimuenchen.de
Scheel
Silvio K
SK
Liebmann
Sibylle
S
Neumann
Jens
J
Maatz
Susanne
S
Kirchner
Thomas
T
Jung
Andreas
A
D000071916:AC133 Antigen; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D011379:Prognosis; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics; D014410:Tumor Stem Cell Assay
D000071916:AC133 Antigen; D015703:Antigens, CD; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D006023:Glycoproteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; C000606023:PROM1 protein, human; D010455:Peptides; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering