Kondo Toru
Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2PY, UK.
Eur J Cancer. 2006 Jun;42(9):1237-42. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2006.01.038. Epub 2006 May 2.
Both stem cells and cancer cells are thought to be capable of unlimited proliferation. Moreover, many tumours and cancer cell lines express stem cell markers, including adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette transporters, by which the cells pump out specific fluorescent dyes as well as anti-cancer drugs, suggesting either that cancer cells resemble stem cells or that cancers contain stem-like cells. Using the common characteristics of brain tumour cells and neural stem cells, several research groups have succeeded in identifying stem-like cells (cancer stem-like cells) in brain tumours and brain cancer cell lines. The purified cancer stem-like cells, but not the other cancer cells, self-renew and form tumours when transplanted in vivo. Thus, cancer stem-like cells in brain tumours might be a crucial target for anti-brain tumour therapy.
干细胞和癌细胞都被认为能够无限增殖。此外，许多肿瘤和癌细胞系表达干细胞标志物，包括三磷酸腺苷（ATP）结合盒转运蛋白，这些细胞通过该蛋白泵出特定的荧光染料以及抗癌药物，这表明癌细胞要么类似于干细胞，要么癌症中含有干细胞样细胞。利用脑肿瘤细胞和神经干细胞的共同特征，几个研究小组已成功在脑肿瘤和脑癌细胞系中鉴定出干细胞样细胞（癌症干细胞样细胞）。纯化的癌症干细胞样细胞，而非其他癌细胞，在体内移植时能够自我更新并形成肿瘤。因此，脑肿瘤中的癌症干细胞样细胞可能是抗脑肿瘤治疗的关键靶点。
