title: High prevalence of side population in human cancer cell lines.
abstract: Cancer cell lines are essential platforms for performing cancer research on human cells. We here demonstrate that, across tumor entities, human cancer cell lines harbor minority populations of putative stem-like cells, molecularly defined by dye extrusion resulting in the side population phenotype. These findings establish a heterogeneous nature of human cancer cell lines and argue for their stem cell origin. This should be considered when interpreting research involving these model systems.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunobiology, Kantonsspital St. Gallen, 9007 St. Gallen, Switzerland.|Internal Medicine V, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Maximilian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boesch
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Alain G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Zeimet
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fiegl
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.affiliation: Internal Medicine V, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Klocker
authors.affiliation: Internal Medicine V, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Guenther
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gastl
authors.affiliation: Internal Medicine V, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Sieghart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sopper
authors.affiliation: Medical Clinic III, University Clinic Bonn (UKB), 53127 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wolf
keywords: cancer cell line; drug resistance; drug transporter; side population; stem cell