Marker identified for the population of kidney cancer cells with stem cell characteristics as -
By Afsaneh Gray, medwireNews Reporter
The researchers identified a population of clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) cells positive for the marker CTR2 which have characteristics of stem-like cells and are capable of inducing an angiogenic response in vivo.
Furthermore, the targeting of renal cancer cells expressing CTR2 was shown to reduce the resistance to cisplatin.
"identifying these cancer cells in ccRCC and related markers may have a role in supporting the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with RCC and ... ... improve treatment strategies," say Giuseppe Lucarelli and co-authors from the University of Bari in Italy.
Lucarelli and team set out to characterize a population of CD133- and CD24-positive cells RCC-derivatives (CDR) in comparison with a CD133- and CD24- positive population of normal cells renal tubular progenitor adults (tARPCs)
They collected samples of the two tissue samples and healthy tumors from 40 patients with ccRCC then selected the cells were positive for CD133 and CD24.
CTR2 proteins were expressed on 98.2% of the CDR while tARPCs not express the marker at all or expressed at very low levels. the researchers note also that, in situ, CD133 was expressed in both CDR and tARPCs but CTR2 was expressed in cdr, making CD133 / CTR2 co-expression of a potential marker of the CDR.
Interestingly, pretreatment of three different clones of CDR CTR2 with a specific blocking antibody led to much greater sensitivity to cisplatin versus non CDR blocked.
CRD cells expressing CTR2 had similar stem cell properties, with the ability to differentiate into different types of cells, such as adipocytes or epithelial cells, depending on their environment. They were also able to induce angiogenesis in vivo.
The team used the activated cell sorting fluorescence analysis to show that neither CDR nor tARPCs expressed markers of mesenchymal stem cells, suggesting that they do not have a mesenchymal origin.
Further analysis of the expression of the marker indicates that CDR were less differentiated than tARPCs. CDR also able to form tumor colonies in vitro.
Lucarelli and his colleagues performed gene expression profiling of the entire genome to identify 72 genes that discriminate cdr tARPCs with the immune response, cell-mediated chemotaxis and invasion of cells tumor, and processes related to the cell cycle being among the most affected biological pathways.
"Our results indicate the presence in ccRCC, a CD133 + / CD24 + / + CTR2 population of cancer cells," they wrote in the Journal of Urology . "These cells have certain characteristics of stem-like cells, including in vitro self-maintenance and differentiation capacity, and are capable of inducing an angiogenic response in vivo ."
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