Division of Animal Experiment, Life Science Research Center, Gifu University, Gifu City, Gifu, Japan.
Department of Tumor Pathology, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu City, Gifu, Japan.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1139:115-126. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-14366-4_7.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the fourth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have attracted a great deal of interest because of their potential clinical implications in a range of cancers, including CRC. CSCs were initially considered to be cell populations with well-defined phenotypic and molecular characteristics. However, accumulating evidence suggests that CSCs represent a phenotypically and functionally heterogeneous population. Recent studies also demonstrate colorectal CSCs to be dynamic rather than static populations that are continuously altered by various extrinsic factors in addition to intrinsic cellular factors such as genetic and epigenetic alterations. Thus, CSCs do not represent a fixed target population any longer, and their heterogeneous and dynamic nature present a serious problem in establishing specific therapeutic strategies. This chapter summarizes past and current literature related to CSC population heterogeneity and dynamics in CRC tissues, including evidence of the presence of distinct CSC subpopulations and signaling pathways and intra- and extra-tumoral factors involved in the regulation of CSCs in cancer tissues.
结直肠癌（CRC）仍然是全球癌症死亡的第四大主要原因。癌症干细胞（CSCs）因其在包括 CRC 在内的多种癌症中的潜在临床意义而引起了极大的关注。CSCs 最初被认为是具有明确表型和分子特征的细胞群体。然而，越来越多的证据表明，CSCs 代表了一种表型和功能上异质的群体。最近的研究还表明，结直肠 CSCs 是动态的，而不是静态的群体，除了遗传和表观遗传改变等内在细胞因素外，它们还受到各种外在因素的不断改变。因此，CSCs 不再代表一个固定的目标群体，它们的异质性和动态性在制定特定的治疗策略方面构成了一个严重的问题。本章总结了过去和目前与 CRC 组织中 CSC 群体异质性和动力学相关的文献，包括存在不同的 CSC 亚群和信号通路的证据，以及肿瘤组织中参与 CSC 调节的内在和外在因素。
