Department of Restorative Sciences, University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Head Neck. 2013 Jul;35(7):1015-21. doi: 10.1002/hed.23076. Epub 2012 Jul 13.
Recent evidence suggests that head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) harbor a small subpopulation of highly tumorigenic cells, designated cancer stem cells. A limiting factor in cancer stem cell research is the intrinsic difficulty of expanding cells in an undifferentiated state in vitro.
Here, we describe the development of the orosphere assay, a method for the study of putative head and neck cancer stem cells. An orosphere is defined as a nonadherent colony of cells sorted from primary HNSCCs or from HNSCC cell lines and cultured in 3-dimensional soft agar or ultralow attachment plates. Aldehyde dehydrogenase activity and CD44 expression were used here as stem cell markers.
This assay allowed for the propagation of head and neck cancer cells that retained stemness and self-renewal.
The orosphere assay is well suited for studies designed to understand the pathobiology of head and neck cancer stem cells.
最近的证据表明,头颈部鳞状细胞癌(HNSCC)中存在一小部分具有高肿瘤形成能力的细胞,被称为癌症干细胞。癌症干细胞研究的一个限制因素是在体外将细胞在未分化状态下扩增的内在困难。
在这里,我们描述了球体形成测定法的开发,这是一种研究头颈部癌症干细胞的方法。球体是指从原发性 HNSCC 或 HNSCC 细胞系中分离出来的非贴壁细胞集落,并在 3 维软琼脂或超低附着平板中培养。在这里,醛脱氢酶活性和 CD44 表达被用作干细胞标记物。
该测定法允许头颈部癌细胞的增殖,这些细胞保留了干性和自我更新能力。
球体形成测定法非常适合用于研究头颈部癌症干细胞的病理生物学。