earticle

영어

Recent reports have suggested that tumors are organized in heterogeneous cell populations and that the capability to initiate malignancies resides in only a small subset of cancer cells called cancer stem cells. In the case of human colon cancer, cells expressing CD133 have been considered cancer stem cells. To determine specific mechanisms of colon cancer stem cells, colon cancer cell line (HT-29) was separated into CD133+ and CD133- cells by MACS, which was confirmed by RT-PCR. We observed that the sorted CD133+ cells possess high tumorigenecity and clonogenicity as compared to CD133- cells. Differentially expressed proteins between CD133+ cells and CD133- cells were detected by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and these proteins were identified by ESI-Q-TOF MS/MS. By the proteomic analysis, we obtained 10 proteins including acitn-related proteins. Notably the actin-related protein A and protein B were more expressed in CD133+ cells than CD133- cells, and these two proteins were verified by Western blot. The identification of specific protein markers for tumorigenic colon cells would provide the basis for detection, as well as clues for understanding the molecular mechanisms governing cancer progression.