Utilizing In vitro and In vivo System to Assess the Metastatic Potential of Cancer Stem-like Cells in Human Colorectal Cancer

• Main Authors: Huei-Ru Lin, 林慧如
• Other Authors: 謝銘鈞
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/47400364474952151933

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 醫學工程學研究所 === 99 === Cancer metastasis is the primary cause of cancer-related death. Liver is the major site of metastasis for patient with colorectal cancer and it is also the major determinant of survival. In the last several years, cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified in several human malignancies, including colorectal cancer. Moreover, more and more studies evidence that CSCs may not only involve in malignant cancer initiation and progression, but also drive cancer metastasis and responsible for tumor recurrence, result in the poor prognostic. However, there is little known about the role of CSCs in metastasis of human cancer, also lacking a well established in vivo animal model system for present studies. Therefore, it is necessary to help elucidate the role of colorectal cancer stem cells in the liver metastatic spread. In this study, in vitro cells experiments and in vivo animal models were established to observe colorectal cancer stem-like cells metastasis. In order to visualize by bioluminescence imaging system, cancer cells were all transfected with firefly luciferase gene. The metastatic potential of four colon cancer cell lines and CD133 sorted CSCs were assessed. The results showed that the CD133high cell lines were performed higher metastatic potential than CD133low cell lines, but not exact corresponded with CD133 expression levels. On the other hand, in vitro results indicated that the CD133+ cancer cells have great capacities of invasion and migration than CD133- cancer cells; in vivo experimental results showed that CD133+ cells expressed great tumor initiated ability in comparison with CD133- cells. In conclusion, the in vitro and in vivo model in this study can give better way to help understand the role of CD133+ colorectal cancer stem-like cells in liver metastasis, and also apply to other type of cancer stem cells metastatic researches. Additionally, the CD133+ cancer cells may play a crucial role in colorectal cancer metastatic process.