Choi Sung Hoon, Lee Sang Woo, Ok Minseon, Kim Kyung Sik, Kim Sungsik, Ahn Sang Hoon
Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Division of Bioconvergence, Drug and Disease Target Group, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang, Korea.
Yonsei Med J. 2017 Sep;58(5):925-933. doi: 10.3349/ymj.2017.58.5.925.
Cancer stem like cells (CSCs), with unlimited self-renewal potential and other stem cell characteristics, occur in several cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although CSCs can initiate tumors, malignant proliferation, relapse and multi-drug resistance, the ways how to activate them still remain unknown. This study aims to evaluate whether CSC acquire tumorigenic characters under tumor hypoxia, analyzed by microarray analysis.
CSCs were purified from HCC patients and Affymetrix microarray was used to investigate their gene expression profiles. The results were validated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
The results of the microarray indicated that 18 genes were up-regulated and 10 genes were down-regulated in CSCs. Several genes were identified to be significantly involved in the regulation of CSCs such as HCC. Furthermore, the up-regulated genes were related with metabolism, angiogenesis and hypoxia, whereas the down-regulated genes were related with apoptosis and inflammation.
The results may help to understand the mechanisms of tumor development through CSCs which acquired their distinctive tumorogenic properties by hypoxic stimulation.
癌症干细胞（CSCs）具有无限自我更新潜能及其他干细胞特征，存在于包括肝细胞癌（HCC）在内的多种癌症中。尽管癌症干细胞能够引发肿瘤、恶性增殖、复发及多药耐药，但激活它们的方式仍不清楚。本研究旨在通过微阵列分析评估癌症干细胞在肿瘤缺氧条件下是否获得致瘤特性。
从肝癌患者中纯化出癌症干细胞，利用Affymetrix微阵列研究其基因表达谱。结果通过实时聚合酶链反应（PCR）进行验证。
微阵列结果表明，癌症干细胞中有18个基因上调，10个基因下调。鉴定出几个基因显著参与癌症干细胞如肝癌的调控。此外，上调基因与代谢、血管生成和缺氧相关，而下调基因与凋亡和炎症相关。
这些结果可能有助于理解通过癌症干细胞发生肿瘤发展的机制，癌症干细胞通过缺氧刺激获得其独特的致瘤特性。
