title: Birth-weight as a risk factor for cancer in adulthood: the stem cell perspective.
abstract: The 'stem cell burden' hypothesis represents a plausible explanation for the association between birth-weight and the risk of breast cancer in adulthood. The size of the overall stem cell pool would be expected to affect organ size and consequently birth-weight, making birth-weight a proxy for the overall number of fetal stem cells. As stem cells are self-renewing, the greater their number is at birth, the higher will be the chance that one of them will undergo carcinogenesis over the years. To investigate the correlation between birth-weight and stem cell burden, we examined the cord blood hematopoietic CD34+ stem cell population as an indicator of the overall fetal stem cell number. We measured both the CD34+ level (by flow cytometry) and the CD34+ proliferative potential (by the GM-CFU culture), in a sample of 1037 healthy newborn cord blood donors. We found that heavier babies had a significantly greater CD34+ stem cell concentration (p<0.001) and a higher GM-CFU number than lighter babies (p<0.001). Thus, a high birth-weight was positively associated with a high concentration of CD34+ stem cells and also with a qualitatively higher "stemness" of this pool. Therefore, our data support the theory that birth-weight reflects the number of fetal stem cells.
authors.affiliation: Pavia Cord Blood Bank, Transfusion Medicine Department, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy. cristina.capittini@libero.it
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Capittini
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bergamaschi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Silvestri
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marchesi
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Genovese
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tinelli
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Salvaneschi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018952:Antigens, CD34; D001724:Birth Weight; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D053686:Fetal Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D055014:Granulocyte-Macrophage Progenitor Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism; D009929:Organ Size; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D018952:Antigens, CD34