Cancer stem cells (CSCs) possess several characteristics including self-renewal, pluripotency and tumorigenicity and constitute a rare population in a tumor mass. Because conventional cancer therapies can not kill CSCs, these cells are responsible for tumor relapse and metastasis. Currently, with advances in the identification of CSCs, the importance of these cells is increasing in the fie...

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) generate transient-amplifying cells and thereby contribute to cancer propagation. A fuller understanding of the biological features of CSCs is expected to lead to the development of new anticancer therapies capable of eradicating this life-threatening disease. Cancer stem cells are known to maintain a non-proliferative state and to enter the cell cycle only infrequently...

OBJECTIVE Identifying the biological characteristics of previously screened ovarian cancer cell line HO8910-derived stem cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS The pre-screening of ovarian cancer cell line HO8910-derived stem cells were subcultured (HO8910 cells were used as a control group) in serum-free medium. Firstly, the capacities of forming spheroids and self-renewal were observed. Then ovarian ...

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) or tumor initiating cells were identified and characterized as a unique subpopulation with stem cell features in many types of cancer. Current CSC studies provide novel insights regarding tumor initiation, progression, angiogenesis, resistance to therapy and interplay with the tumor micro-environment. A cancer stem cell niche has been proposed based on these findings. T...

Abstract The self-renewal transcription factor Nanog and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)–Akt pathway are known to be essential for maintenance of mesenchymal stem cells. We evaluated their contribution CD133(+) cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) spheroid-forming in patient-derived cell lines from three human sarcoma subtypes: HT1080 fibrosarcoma, SK-LMS-1 leiomyosarcoma, DDLS8817 dedifferentiat...

Increasing evidence supports the hypothesis that cancer stem cells (CSCs) are resistant to antiproliferative therapies, able to repopulate tumor bulk, and seed metastasis. NK cells are able to target stem cells as shown by their ability to reject allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells but not solid tissue grafts. Using multiple preclinical models, including NK coculture (autologous and allogeneic)...

The cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis proposes that CSCs are responsible for metastasis and disease recurrence. Therefore, targeting CSCs has the potential to significantly improve outcomes for cancer patients. The OCT4 transcription factor gene is a master gene that plays a key role in the self-renewal and pluripotency of stem cells. In this study, we introduced an OCT4 reporting vector into 4...

Microgravity influences cell differentiation by modifying the morphogenetic field in which stem cells are embedded. Preliminary data showed indeed that stem cells are committed to selective differentiation when exposed to real or simulated microgravity. Our study provides evidence that a similar event occurs when cancer stem cells (CSCs) are cultured in microgravity. In the same time, a signifi...

The existence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is the main reason for failure of cancer treatment caused by drug resistance. Therefore, eradicating cancers by targeting CSCs remains a significant challenge. In the present study, because of the important role of BMI-1 proto-oncogene, polycomb ring finger (BMI-1) and C-terminal Mucin1 (MUC1-C) in tumor growth and maintenance of CSCs, we aimed to confi...

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have attracted a lot of interest in the field of cancer research in recent years. Lung CSCs share many characteristics with the normal pluripotent stem cells, such as self-renewal and multi-potent abilities. Identification of normal adult lung stem cells and their response to injury has led us to the lung cancer stem cells, partially based on the knowledge that lung CSC...