title: Cytometric profiling of CD133+ cells in human colon  carcinoma cell lines identifies a common core phenotype  and cell type-specific mosaics.
abstract: In colorectal cancer, CD133+ cells from fresh biopsies proved to be more tumorigenic than their CD133- counterparts. Nevertheless, the function of CD133 protein in tumorigenic cells seems only marginal. Moreover, CD133 expression alone is insufficient to isolate true cancer stem cells, since only 1 out of 262 CD133+ cells actually displays stem-cell capacity. Thus, new markers for colorectal cancer stem cells are needed. Here, we show the extensive characterization of CD133+ cells in 5 different colon carcinoma continuous cell lines (HT29, HCT116, Caco2, GEO and LS174T), each representing a different maturation level of colorectal cancer cells. Markers associated with stemness, tumorigenesis and metastatic potential were selected. We identified 6 molecules consistently present on CD133+ cells: CD9, CD29, CD49b, CD59, CD151, and CD326. By contrast, CD24, CD26, CD54, CD66c, CD81, CD90, CD99, CD112, CD164, CD166, and CD200 showed a discontinuous behavior, which led us to identify cell type-specific surface antigen mosaics. Finally, some antigens, e.g. CD227, indicated the possibility of classifying the CD133+ cells into 2 subsets likely exhibiting specific features. This study reports, for the first time, an extended characterization of the CD133+ cells in colon carcinoma cell lines and provides a "dictionary" of antigens to be used in colorectal cancer research.
authors.affiliation: CEINGE - Biotecnologie Avanzate di Napoli, Naples - Italy.
authors.forename: Marica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gemei
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Noto
authors.forename: Peppino
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mirabelli
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Del Vecchio
mesh_terms: D000071916:AC133 Antigen; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010641:Phenotype
chemical_list: D000071916:AC133 Antigen; D015703:Antigens, CD; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D006023:Glycoproteins; C000606023:PROM1 protein, human; D010455:Peptides