Reference SummaryHarris MA, Cancer Res 2008 Dec 15;68(24):10051-9

Title

Cancer stem cells are enriched in the side population cells in a mouse model of glioma.

Authors

Harris MA; Yang H; Low BE; Mukherje J; Guha A; Bronson RT; Shultz LD; Israel MA; Yun K

Journal

Cancer Res

Volume

68

Issue

24

Year

2008

Pages

10051-9

Abstract

The recent identification of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in multiple human cancers provides a new inroad to understanding tumorigenesis at the cellular level. CSCs are defined by their characteristics of self-renewal, multipotentiality, and tumor initiation upon transplantation. By testing for these defining characteristics, we provide evidence for the existence of CSCs in a transgenic mouse model of glioma, S100beta-verbB;Trp53. In this glioma model, CSCs are enriched in the side population (SP) cells. These SP cells have enhanced tumor-initiating capacity, self-renewal, and multipotentiality compared with non-SP cells from the same tumors. Furthermore, gene expression analysis comparing fluorescence-activated cell sorting-sorted cancer SP cells to non-SP cancer cells and normal neural SP cells identified 45 candidate genes that are differentially expressed in glioma stem cells. We validated the expression of two genes from this list (S100a4 and S100a6) in primary mouse gliomas and human glioma samples. Analyses of xenografted human glioblastoma multiforme cell lines and primary human glioma tissues show that S100A4 and S100A6 are expressed in a small subset of cancer cells and that their abundance is positively correlated to tumor grade. In conclusion, this study shows that CSCs exist in a mouse glioma model, suggesting that this model can be used to study the molecular and cellular characteristics of CSCs in vivo and to further test the CSC hypothesis.

Links

J:142242 – MGI References
19074870 – National Library of Medicine/PubMed

Models

Strain Model Name Treatment Agent(s) Organ Affected Frequency Model Details
C57BL/6J-Tg(S100b-v-erbB)4496Waw Trp53tm1Brd CNS - Brain glioma CNS - Brain

observed

C57BL/6J-Trp53tm1Brd CNS - Brain glioma CNS - Brain

0

C57BL/6J CNS - Brain glioma CNS - Brain

0