Characterization of CD133 super(+) hepatocellular carcinoma cells as cancer stem/progenitor cells

• Published in: Biochemical and biophysical research communications Vol. 351; no. 4; pp. 820 - 824
• Main Authors: Suetsugu, A, Nagaki, M, Aoki, H, Motohashi, T, Kunisada, T, Moriwaki, H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 29-12-2006
• ISSN: 0006-291X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2006.10.128

The CD133 antigen, identified as a hematopoietic stem cell marker, appears in various human embryonic epithelia including the neural tube, gut, and kidney. We herein investigated whether CD133 super(+) cells isolated from human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines possess cancer stem/progenitor cell-like properties. Among the three cell lines studied, the CD133 antigen was found to be expressed only on the surface of Huh-7 cells. CD133 super(+) cells from Huh-7 performed a higher in vitro proliferative potential and lower mRNA expressions of mature hepatocyte markers, glutamine synthetase and cytochrome P450 3A4, than CD133 super(-) population of Huh-7 cells. When either CD133 super(+) or CD133 super(-) cells were subcutaneously injected into SCID mice, CD133 super(+) cells formed tumors, whereas CD133 super(-) cells induced either a very small number of tumors or none at all. Taken together, the identification of CD133 super(+) cells could thus be a potentially powerful tool to investigate the tumorigenic process in the hepatoma system and to also develop effective therapies targeted against hepatocellular carcinoma.