earticle

영어

Recent studies have suggested the existence of a small subset of cancer cells called cancer stem cells (CSCs), which possess the ability to initiate malignancies, promote tumor formation, drive metastasis, and evade conventional chemotherapies. Elucidation of the specific signaling pathway and mechanism underlying the action of CSCs might improve the efficacy of cancer treatments. In this study, we analyzed differentially expressed proteins between tumerigenic and non-tumorigenic cells isolated from the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line, Huh7, via proteomic analysis to identify proteins correlated with specific features of CSCs. Among the identified proteins, COP9 and Transgelin were confirmed with RT-PCR and Western blotting. COP9, lowly expressed in CD133+ cells compared to CD133- cells, was known one of the Rb regulators. However, Transgelin related to cell migration was highly expressed in CD133+ cells. We observed CD133+ cells have more metastatic phenotype than CD133- cells using wound healing assay and invasion assay. Moreover, in tumors derived from Huh7-induced xenografts, Transgelin was also co-expressed with CXCR4, responsible for tumor invasion. More studies are needed to reveal the role of the identified proteins in the undifferentiated tumerigenic cells.