Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), UAS-GKVK campus, Yelahanka, Bangalore 560 065 India,
Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), UAS-GKVK campus, Yelahanka, Bangalore 560 065 India.
Front Biosci (Landmark Ed). 2020 Mar 1;25(6):1011-1021. doi: 10.2741/4845.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) or tumor-initiating cells (TICs) represent a minority population of cells in a tumor that can self-renew and re-create the heterogeneity of the entire tumor. Cell lines, patient-derived tumor cells, and patient-derived xenografts have all been used to isolate presumptive CSC populations from different tumor types. Because of their purported roles in tumor recurrence and prognosis, numerous efforts have centered around reliably identifying CSCs using cell surface markers, and in using genomics tools to identify molecular features unique to these cells. In this brief review, we will discuss different markers, CD44, ALDH1, CD271 and others that have used for identifying and isolating CSCs from primary head & neck and oral squamous cell carcinomas. In particular, we focus on the challenges associated with these experiments as this will be useful to researchers attempting similar isolations. We also discuss some important molecular features gleaned from studying these CSCs such as the expression of stem cell-related markers, loss of cell adhesion and terminal differentiation markers, and the presence of both epithelial and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) features.
癌症干细胞（CSCs）或肿瘤起始细胞（TICs）代表肿瘤中少数能够自我更新并重现整个肿瘤异质性的细胞群体。细胞系、患者来源的肿瘤细胞和患者来源的异种移植物都被用于从不同的肿瘤类型中分离假定的 CSC 群体。由于它们在肿瘤复发和预后中的潜在作用，许多研究都集中在使用细胞表面标志物可靠地鉴定 CSC 上，并使用基因组学工具来鉴定这些细胞特有的分子特征。在这篇简短的综述中，我们将讨论用于鉴定和分离头颈部和口腔鳞状细胞癌中 CSC 的不同标志物，如 CD44、ALDH1、CD271 等。特别地，我们关注与这些实验相关的挑战，因为这对试图进行类似分离的研究人员将非常有用。我们还讨论了从这些 CSC 研究中获得的一些重要的分子特征，如干细胞相关标志物的表达、细胞黏附丧失和终末分化标志物的表达，以及上皮和上皮-间充质转化（EMT）特征的存在。
