Cancer stem cells: cell culture, markers, and targets for new therapies
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular PharmacologyDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2009-12-01Keywords
Brain NeoplasmsCell Culture Techniques
Cell Differentiation
Cell Lineage
Cell Proliferation
Cell Transformation, Neoplastic
Culture Media
Drug Resistance, Neoplasm
Glioblastoma
Humans
Models, Biological
Neoplastic Stem Cells
Signal Transduction
Tumor Markers, Biological
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology
Cancer Biology
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
A cancer stem cell (CSC) is defined as an undifferentiated cell with the ability to self-renew, differentiate to multiple lineages and initiate tumors that mimic the parent tumor. In this review, we focus on glioblastomas, describing recent progress and problems in characterizing these cells. There have been advances in CSC culture, but tumor cell heterogeneity has made purification of CSCs difficult. Indeed, it may be that CSCs significantly vary from tumor to tumor. We also discuss the proposal that CSCs are resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy and play a major role in repopulating tumors following treatment. To overcome their resistance to conventional therapies, we may be able to use our extensive knowledge of the signaling pathways essential for stem cells during development. These pathways have potential as targets for new glioblastoma therapies. Hence, although there is an ongoing debate on the nature of CSCs, the theory continues to suggest new ideas for both the lab and the clinic.Source
Gilbert, C. A. and Ross, A. H. (2009), Cancer stem cells: Cell culture, markers, and targets for new therapies. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry, 108: 1031–1038. doi: 10.1002/jcb.22350DOI
10.1002/jcb.22350Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/25995PubMed ID
19760641Related Resources
Link to article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1002/jcb.22350