BACKGROUND In laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), CD133+ cells were found to display cancer stem cell (CSC) characteristics. BMI1 is an oncogene that plays key roles in proliferation in CSCs. However, no published reports have examined the role of BMI1 in laryngeal CSCs. METHODS Immunofluorescence staining confirmed the coexpression of BMI1 and CD133. After sorting, real-time polymerase ...

Hypoxia promotes the radioresistance of laryngeal carcinomas and CD133 is one of the markers expressed by tumor-initiating, human laryngeal carcinoma cells. In order to investigate whether CD133-positive Hep-2 cells exhibit a radioresistant phenotype and to determine whether hypoxia promotes this phenotype, we performed a series of experiments. Hep-2 cells, and Hep-2 cells stably expressing hyp...

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a small population of undifferentiated cancer cells within tumors, which contribute to tumorigenicity and relapse. In the current study, CD133 (also termed prominin‑1), a CSC marker, was investigated to determine its involvement in predicting carcinogenesis and prognosis in patients with non‑small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). CD133‑positive lung cancer cells were is...

Chemotherapeutic refractoriness of advanced cutaneous melanoma may be linked with melanoma-initiating cells, also known as melanoma stem cells. This study aimed to determine relative risk of clonal dominance of the CD133+ phenotype in tissues from melanoma patients with different clinical outcomes that could be applied to early diagnosis, prognosi...

The underlying mechanism regulating the expression of the cancer stem cell/tumor-initiating cell marker CD133/prominin-1 in cancer cells remains largely unclear, although knowledge of this mechanism would likely provide important biological information regarding cancer stem cells. Here, we found that the inhibition of mTOR signaling up-regulated CD133 expression at both the mRNA and protein lev...

Recent advances in cancer stem cell biology have shown that cancer stem-like cells with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotypes are more aggressive and cause relapse; however, absence of a specific marker to isolate these EMT stem-like cells hampers research in this direction. Cell surface markers have been identified for isolating cancer stem-like cells, but none has been identified...

PURPOSE Cancer stem cells represent an attractive therapeutic target for tumor eradication. The present study aimed to determine whether CD133 expression may identify cells with characteristics of cancer stem/progenitor cells in human endometrial tumors. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We analyzed 113 tumor samples for CD133/1 expression by flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and semiquantitative rever...

BACKGROUND Tumor metastasis is driven by malignant cells and stromal cell components of the tumor microenvironment. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are thought to be responsible for metastasis by altering the tumor microenvironment. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) processes contribute to specific stages of the metastatic cascade, promoted by cytokines and chemokines secreted by stromal cell co...

Much controversy surrounds the identity and origin of human hepatic stem and progenitor cells in part because of a lack of small animal models in which the developmental potential of isolated candidate cell populations can be functionally evaluated. We show here that adoptive transfer of CD34(+) cells from human fetal liver into sublethally irradiated NOD-SCID Il2rg(-/-) (NSG) mice leads to an ...