Department of Medical Research, Division of Translational Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Department of Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
J Chin Med Assoc. 2019 Nov;82(11):814-818. doi: 10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000186.
Cancer stem cells (CSC) are a subpopulation of tumor cells that have superior capacities of self-renewal, metastatic dissemination, and chemoresistance. These characteristics resemble, to some extent, the outcome of certain biological processes, including epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), autophagy, and cellular stress response. Indeed, it has been shown that the stimuli that induce these processes and CSC are overlapping, and CSC and tumor cells that underwent EMT or autophagy are much alike. However, as the cross talk between CSC, EMT, autophagy, and cellular stress is further explored, these processes are also found to have an opposing role in CSC, depending on the condition and status of cells. This contextual effect is likely due to overwhelming reliance on CSC markers for their identification, and/or discrepancies in recognition of CSC as a particular cell population or cellular state. In this review, we summarize how EMT, autophagy, and cellular stress response are tied or unwound with CSC. We also discuss the current view of CSC theory evolved from the emphasis of heterogenicity and plasticity of CSC.
癌症干细胞（CSC）是肿瘤细胞的一个亚群，具有较强的自我更新、转移扩散和化疗耐药能力。这些特征在某种程度上类似于某些生物学过程的结果，包括上皮-间充质转化（EMT）、自噬和细胞应激反应。事实上，已经表明，诱导这些过程和 CSC 的刺激因素是重叠的，经历 EMT 或自噬的 CSC 和肿瘤细胞非常相似。然而，随着对 CSC、EMT、自噬和细胞应激之间的串扰的进一步探索，这些过程在 CSC 中也具有相反的作用，这取决于细胞的状况和状态。这种上下文效应可能是由于过度依赖 CSC 标志物来识别它们，以及/或者对 CSC 作为特定细胞群体或细胞状态的识别存在差异。在这篇综述中，我们总结了 EMT、自噬和细胞应激反应如何与 CSC 联系或解开联系。我们还讨论了从 CSC 异质性和可塑性强调中演变而来的 CSC 理论的当前观点。
