Generation and characterization of hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines with enhanced cancer stem cell potential. Issue 12 (2nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Muenzner, Julienne K.; Kunze, Philipp; Lindner, Pablo; Polaschek, Sandra; Menke, Kira; Eckstein, Markus; Geppert, Carol I.; Chanvorachote, Pithi; Baeuerle, Tobias; Hartmann, Arndt; Schneider‐Stock, Regine
• Is Part Of: Journal of cellular and molecular medicine. Volume 22:Issue 12(2018)
• Page Start: 6238
• Page End: 6248
• Publication Date: 2018-10-02
• Subjects: cancer stem cells -- CD133 -- cell culture model -- chorioallantoic membrane assay -- hepatocellular carcinoma -- tumour cell aggressiveness; Cytology; Medicine; Molecular Biology; Cytologie -- Périodiques; Médecine -- Périodiques; Biologie moléculaire -- Périodiques; Cytology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Molecular biology -- Periodicals; 611.01805
• DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.13911
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1582-1838

Abstract

Abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common causes for cancer‐related death worldwide with rapidly increasing incidence and mortality rates. As for other types of cancers, also in HCC cancer stem cells (CSCs) are thought to be responsible for tumour initiation, progression and therapy failure. However, as rare subpopulations of tumour tissue, CSCs are difficult to isolate, thus making the development of suitable and reliable model systems necessary. In our study, we generated HepG2 subclones with enriched CSC potential by application of the spheroid formation method and subsequent single‐cell cloning. Analyses in several 2D and 3D cell culture systems as well as a panel of functional assays both in vitro and in vivo revealed that the generated subclones displayed characteristic and sustained features of tumour initiating cells as well as highly aggressive properties related to tumour progression and metastasis. These characteristics could clearly be correlated with the expression of CSC markers that might have prognostic value in the clinical HCC setting. Therefore, we conclude that our CSC enriched HepG2 clones certainly represent suitable model systems to study the role of CSCs during HCC initiation, progression and drug resistance.