Wang Yue J, Bailey Jennifer M, Rovira Meritxell, Leach Steven D
McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2013;980:281-90. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-287-2_15.
Sphere-forming assays are an in vitro technique to assay both normal and neoplastic cells for clonogenic growth potential. Currently, the identification of adult progenitors in the pancreas remains an area of intense investigation. The use of sphere-forming assays provides a critical step to identify new cell types in the pancreas that are capable of clonogenic growth and differentiation. In the field of cancer biology, cancer stem cells have been defined functionally by two major criteria: their ability to undergo self-renewal and their ability to produce differentiated progeny, two conditions which satisfy the criteria of stem cells. Here we briefly review both the capabilities of pancreatosphere and pancreatic tumorsphere assays, discuss important caveats regarding their use, and provide detailed protocols for the assay of both normal and neoplastic cells.
成球实验是一种体外技术，用于检测正常细胞和肿瘤细胞的克隆生长潜能。目前，胰腺中成年祖细胞的鉴定仍是一个深入研究的领域。成球实验的应用为鉴定胰腺中能够进行克隆生长和分化的新细胞类型提供了关键步骤。在癌症生物学领域，癌症干细胞在功能上已通过两个主要标准来定义：它们的自我更新能力以及产生分化后代的能力，这两个条件符合干细胞的标准。在此，我们简要回顾胰腺球和胰腺肿瘤球实验的能力，讨论其使用时的重要注意事项，并提供正常细胞和肿瘤细胞检测的详细方案。
