Identification and expansion of human colon-cancer-initiating cells

Colon carcinoma is the second most common cause of death from cancer. The isolation and characterization of tumorigenic colon cancer cells may help to devise novel diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Although there is increasing evidence that a rare population of undifferentiated cells is respons...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature 2007-01, Vol.445 (7123), p.111-115
Main Authors: De Maria, Ruggero, Ricci-Vitiani, Lucia, Lombardi, Dario G, Pilozzi, Emanuela, Biffoni, Mauro, Todaro, Matilde, Peschle, Cesare
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AC133 Antigen
Animals
Antigens, CD - metabolism
Biological and medical sciences
Carcinogenesis, carcinogens and anticarcinogens
Cell Differentiation
Cell Line, Tumor
Cell Proliferation
Cellular biology
Colonic Neoplasms - metabolism
Colonic Neoplasms - pathology
Colorectal cancer
General aspects
Glycoproteins - metabolism
Humans
Medical sciences
Mice
Mice, SCID
Neoplasm Transplantation
Neoplastic Stem Cells - metabolism
Neoplastic Stem Cells - pathology
Peptides - metabolism
Phenotype
Transplantation, Heterologous
Tumors
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Summary:Colon carcinoma is the second most common cause of death from cancer. The isolation and characterization of tumorigenic colon cancer cells may help to devise novel diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Although there is increasing evidence that a rare population of undifferentiated cells is responsible for tumour formation and maintenance, this has not been explored for colorectal cancer. Here, we show that tumorigenic cells in colon cancer are included in the high-density CD133+ population, which accounts for about 2.5% of the tumour cells. Subcutaneous injection of colon cancer CD133+ cells readily reproduced the original tumour in immunodeficient mice, whereas CD133- cells did not form tumours. Such tumours were serially transplanted for several generations, in each of which we observed progressively faster tumour growth without significant phenotypic alterations. Unlike CD133- cells, CD133+ colon cancer cells grew exponentially for more than one year in vitro as undifferentiated tumour spheres in serum-free medium, maintaining the ability to engraft and reproduce the same morphological and antigenic pattern of the original tumour. We conclude that colorectal cancer is created and propagated by a small number of undifferentiated tumorigenic CD133+ cells, which should therefore be the target of future therapies.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4679
DOI:10.1038/nature05384