title: Nonadhesive culture system as a model of rapid sphere formation with cancer stem cell properties.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis and are responsible for high therapeutic failure rates. Identification and characterization of CSC are crucial for facilitating the monitoring, therapy, or prevention of cancer. Great efforts have been paid to develop a more effective methodology. Nevertheless, the ideal model for CSC research is still evolving. In this study, we created a nonadhesive culture system to enrich CSCs from human oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines with sphere formation and to characterize their CSC properties further.
  
  
  METHODS
  A nonadhesive culture system was designed to generate spheres from the SAS and OECM-1 cell lines. A subsequent investigation of their CSC properties, including stemness, self-renewal, and chemo- and radioresistance in vitro, as well as tumor initiation capacity in vivo, was also performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Spheres were formed cost-effectively and time-efficiently within 5 to 7 days. Moreover, we proved that these spheres expressed putative stem cell markers and exhibited chemoradiotherapeutic resistance, in addition to tumor-initiating and self-renewal capabilities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using this nonadhesive culture system, we successfully established a rapid and cost-effective model that exhibits the characteristics of CSCs and can be used in cancer research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Hygiene, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Su-Feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yun-Ching
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nieh
authors.forename: Chia-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chin-Yuh
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yaoh-Shiang
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002469:Cell Separation; D006801:Humans; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D018874:Spheroids, Cellular; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured