Colon Cancer Stem Cell Revealed
Toronto Canada -
Researchers at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto published in todays journal Nature the identification of a cell population within the bulk tumour mass that possesses the functional characteristics of a tumor stem cell.
In a paper entitled "A human colon cancer cell capable of initiating tumour growth in immunodeficient mice." John Dick's group essentially demonstrated that cells expressing the marker CD133 are capable of initiating colon cancer formation in immune compromised mice wherease cells lacking this marker can not.
CD133+ cells are approximately 1 in 200 of the cells comprising average colon cancer samples.
The identification of colon cancer stem cells will allow for the generation of therapies that specifically target tumor stem cells, which at present is not occuring.
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notch1 said...
CD133 is typical adult stem cell marker, expressed also on some tumors, hematopoietic stem cells (about 30-70 percent CD34+ coexpress CD133), and hemangioblasts,
CD133 doesn't expressed on mature endothelium,
but expressed on endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) -
Blood 2000; 95: 952–958
or you can get mature endothelium from CD133+
Blood 2000; 95; 10: 3106
Jon Simard said...
I always wondered, what exactly is the function of CD133?
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notch1 said...
i think it's become very popular and simply -
just isolate CD133+ cells from any solid malignant tumor and show self-renewal ability + tumor innitiation in serial transplantation experiments
and call them "a new cancer stem cell population"
same story recently published in BBRC
what was before? before were neuro-tumors and Nature paper...
go ahead
anyway in my opinion i would call Dick's JE lab from Toronto - the best stem cell research lab of this year
they got Nature, Nat Med and Nat Immunology papers
congrats!