Condiotti Reba, Guo Wenjun, Ben-Porath Ittai
Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, Institute for Medical Research - Israel-Canada, The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research, Department of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York.
Crit Rev Oncog. 2014;19(5):337-48. doi: 10.1615/critrevoncog.2014011799.
Cellular heterogeneity is a prominent characteristic of breast cancers, and accumulating evidence indicates that variability in the differentiation state of tumor cells contributes to this phenomenon. Breast cancers are among the tumor types in which the existence of cancer stem cells has been widely supported, and specific markers, including CD44/CD24 and ALDH1, have been consistently used to identify such cells. Recent studies have revealed the potential for dynamic bidirectional transitions of breast cancer cells between differentiated and stem-like phenotypes. In addition, the potential importance of intermediate states along differentiation axes, including the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and the basal-luminal differentiation axis, has emerged. These findings provide a view of breast cancer stem cells that departs from the traditional unidirectional hierarchical model, as well as new insights into the mechanisms by which differentiation events contribute to breast cancer biology. Herein we discuss these advances.
细胞异质性是乳腺癌的一个显著特征，越来越多的证据表明肿瘤细胞分化状态的变异性促成了这一现象。乳腺癌是癌症干细胞的存在得到广泛支持的肿瘤类型之一，包括CD44/CD24和醛脱氢酶1（ALDH1）在内的特定标志物一直被用于识别此类细胞。最近的研究揭示了乳腺癌细胞在分化和干细胞样表型之间动态双向转变的可能性。此外，沿分化轴的中间状态的潜在重要性也已显现，包括上皮-间质转化和基底-管腔分化轴。这些发现提供了一种不同于传统单向层级模型的乳腺癌干细胞观点，也为分化事件影响乳腺癌生物学的机制提供了新见解。在此我们讨论这些进展。
