title: Long-term sphere culture cannot maintain a high ratio of cancer stem cells: a mathematical model and experiment.
abstract: Acquiring abundant and high-purity cancer stem cells (CSCs) is an important prerequisite for CSC research. At present, researchers usually gain high-purity CSCs through flow cytometry sorting and expand them by short-term sphere culture. However, it is still uncertain whether we can amplify high-purity CSCs through long-term sphere culture. We have proposed a mathematical model using ordinary differential equations to derive the continuous variation of the CSC ratio in long-term sphere culture and estimated the model parameters based on a long-term sphere culture of MCF-7 stem cells. We found that the CSC ratio in long-term sphere culture presented as gradually decreased drift and might be stable at a lower level. Furthermore, we found that fitted model parameters could explain the main growth pattern of CSCs and differentiated cancer cells in long-term sphere culture.
authors: Breast Disease Center, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
authors: Tang
authors: T
authors: Peng
authors: Ma
authors: M
authors: Qinghua
authors: Tang
authors: T
authors: Zhenning
authors: Wang
authors: W
authors: Kaifa
authors: Jiang
authors: J
authors: Jun
mesh_terms: D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors