ABSTRACT: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered to play a central role in the cancer progression, metastasis and the development of drug resistance. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have important roles in regulating CSC properties and are considered to be potential therapeutic targets. Diverse aberrantly expressed miRNAs have been reported in ovarian cancer cells. However, there have been few reports about miRNAs that were associated with stemness and progression of ovarian cancer. In this study, we enriched ovarian CSCs by using sphere culture of two ovarian cancer cell lines Kuramochi and SKOV3, and screened crucial miRNAs associated with characteristics and maintenance of CSCs by using miRNA nanoString nCounter assay.
Project description:To check the profile of exosomal and cellular miRNA in ovarian cancer cell lines, total RNA were extracted from exosomes and cells. Thirteen ovarian cancer cell lines (A2780, ES-2, CAOV3, SKOV3, OV-90, OAW42, MCAS, COV362, RMG-1, RMUG-S, KURAMOCHI, NIH-OVCAR3 and A2780cis) were investigated, and HOSE1, HOSE2 and HOSE3 (human ovarian surface epithelim cell lines) were used as control.
Project description:The identification and characterization of subpopulations of cancer stem cells (CSCs) provide new understandings and possible therapeutic implications in cancer biology. We found the ovarian cancer sphere cells possessed CSCs properties maintained self renewal, drug resistance, and tumorigenesis. Using high-throughput microarray system, we identified common GO terms and pathway signatures significantly enriched in ovarian and breast cancer stem cells. Ovarian and breast cancer cells were cultured in sphere formation conditions, and total RNA from those spheres and conresponding adhered cell was hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:The identification and characterization of subpopulations of cancer stem cells (CSCs) provide new understandings and possible therapeutic implications in cancer biology. We found the ovarian cancer sphere cells possessed CSCs properties maintained self renewal, drug resistance, and tumorigenesis. Using high-throughput microarray system, we identified common GO terms and pathway signatures significantly enriched in ovarian and breast cancer stem cells.
Project description:Metastatic prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death in men. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are involved in tumor progression and metastasis, including in prostate cancer. There is an obvious and urgent need for effective cancer stem cells specific therapies in metastatic prostate cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an important class of pervasive genes that are involved in a variety of biological functions, especially in cancer. The goal of this study was to identify miRNAs involved in prostate cancer metastasis and cancer stem cells. Several published reports have demonstrated that non-adherent spheres culture is increasingly used as an effective method to enrich and identify stem cells or putative CSCs.In our previous study, we enriched prostate cancer stem cells from PC-3 sphere cells in serum-free suspension culture and characterized their CSCs properties.Thus, we used spheres as a prostate cancer stem cells model to elucidate its metastatic mechanisms. We examined the miRNA expression profiles of PC-3 sphere cells of prostate cancer compared with PC-3 adherent cells by miRNA microarray.
Project description:Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are regarded as the starting point for tumors and are considered to play key roles in relapse and metastasis in many cancers include neuroblastoma (NB). CSCs have become promising target cancer cells for preventing cancer relapse and improving the prognosis of tumor patients. The CSCs marker are not established in NB, but CSCs are able to isolated as tumor sphere. We used a microarray to profile the transcriptomes of NB tumor spheres to select CSCs candidate molecules.
Project description:Objective: The cancer stem cell (CSC) paradigm hypothesizes that successful clinical eradication of CSCs may lead to durable remission for patients with ovarian cancer. Despite mounting evidence in support of ovarian CSCs, their phenotype and clinical relevance remain unclear. We and others have found high aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDHhigh) expression in a variety of normal and malignant stem cells, and sought to better characterize ALDHhigh cells in ovarian cancer. Methods: We compared ALDHhigh to ALDHlow cells in two ovarian cancer models representing distinct subtypes: FNAR-C1 cells, derived from a spontaneous rat endometrioid carcinoma, and the human SKOV3 cell line (described as both serous and clear cell subtypes). We assessed these populations for stem cell features then analyzed expression by microarray and qPCR. Results: ALDHhigh cells displayed CSC properties, including: smaller size, quiescence, regenerating the phenotypic diversity of the cell lines in vitro, lack of contact inhibition, nonadherent growth, multi-drug resistance, and in vivo tumorigenicity. Microarray and qPCR analysis of the expression of markers reported by others to enrich for ovarian CSCs revealed that ALDHhigh cells of both models showed downregulation of CD24, but inconsistent expression of CD44, KIT and CD133. However, the following drugable targets were consistently expressed in the ALDHhigh cells from both models: mTOR signaling, her-2/neu, CD47 and FGF18 / FGFR3. Conclusions: Based on functional characterization, ALDHhigh ovarian cancer cells represent an ovarian CSC population. Differential gene expression identified drugable targets that have the potential for therapeutic efficacy against ovarian CSCs from multiple subtypes. FNAR-C1 rat ovarian cancer cells were sorted into Aldefluor high and Aldefluor low populations. Analysis was performed in triplicate. Aldefluor low cells served as the reference cells for fold-change analysis.
Project description:To understand the differentiation of ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs), We derived two phenotypes of CSCs and identified the gene expression profiling. The CSCs were derived from Cp70 ovarian cancer cells and cultured in suspension and examined every day for sphere formation. Spheres were then dissociated and passaged at least eight times in 2 months to generate spheres, which are henceforth referred to as SR cells. The surface of SR-I was smooth regardless of the size, whereas SR-II was morula. SR-I could differentiate into multiple-lineage cell types under specific induction conditions. SR-I spheroids could differentiate to SR-II spheroids through epithelial-mesenchymal transition.The self-renewal was slower for SR-I than for SR-II.
Project description:Background: Epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) is a malignant tumor with high motility in women. Our previous study found that dysregulated NTPCR was associated with the prognosis of ovarian cancer patients, and thus this present study attempted to explore the potential roles of nucleoside-triphosphatase cancer-related (NTPCR) in disease progression. Methods: Expressed level of NTPCR was investigated in ovarian cancer cell lines by RT-qPCR analysis. shRNA targeting NTPCR was generated and transfected into SKOV3 cells to detect the effect of knocking out NTPCR on cell proliferation, cell cycle, cell migration, and invasion. Transcriptomic sequencing and metabolite profiling analysis were performed in shNTPCR groups to identify transcriptome or metabolites alteration that might contribute to ovarian cancer. And finally, we searched the overlapped signaling pathways correlated with differential metabolites and DEGs by integrating analysis. Results: NTPCR was upregulated in EOC cell lines compared with human ovarian epithelium cell IOSE80, especially in SKOV3 and OVCAR-3 (SKOV3 vs IOSE80, P<0.001; OVCAR-3 vs IOSE80, P<0.001). Knocking out NTPCR can induce cell proliferation and S phase arrest, promote migration and invasion in SKOV3 cells. RNA sequencing analysis demonstrated cohorts of differential expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in shNTPCR samples. PPI networks were constructed for DEGs. STAT1 (degree = 43) and OAS2 (degree = 36) were identified as hub genes in network. Several miRNAs together with target genes were predicted to be crucial genes related to disease progression, including hsa-miR-124-3p, hsa-miR-30a-5p, hsa-miR-146a-5, EP300, GATA2, and STAT3. We also screened the differential metabolites from shNTPCR samples, including 22 upregulated and 22 downregulated metabolites. By integrating analysis, eight overlapped pathways were correlated with these DEGs and differential metabolites, such as primary bile acid biosynthesis, protein digestion, and absorption, pentose and glucuronate interconversions. Conclusion: NTPCR might serve as a tumor suppressor in EOC progression. Our results demonstrated that DEGs and differential metabolites were mainly related to several signaling pathways, which might be a crucial role in the progression of ovarian cancer.
Project description:Side population (SP) cells harbor malignant phenotypes, such as sphere forming capacity, single cell clonogenicity and in vivo tumorigenicity. These malignant phenotypes are related to a poor prognosis for women with ovarian cancer. The aim of this study was to identify key factor(s) that increase the proportion of ovarian cancer SP cells through a functional genomics screen. A library of 81 000 shRNAs targeting 15 000 genes was transfected into CH1 and SKOV3 cells, followed by SP analysis. We found that suppression of MSL3, ZNF691, VPS45, ITGB3BP, TLE2, and ZNF498 markedly increased the proportion of SP cells. Newly generated SP cells exhibit significantly greater capacity for sphere formation, single cell clonogenicity, and in vivo tumorigenicity. On the contrary, overexpression of MSL3, VPS45, ITGB3BP, TLE2, and ZNF498 significantly decreased the proportion of SP cells, sphere formation capacity and single cell clonogenicity. In ovarian cancer cases, low expression of MSL3, ZNF691 and VPS45 was related to poor prognosis. Suppression of these six genes tended to increase some stem cell-related pathways, and significantly enhanced activity of the hedgehog pathway. Cyclopamine, a hedgehog pathway inhibitor, significantly decreased the number of newly generated SP cells and their sphere forming ability. Our results provide new information regarding molecular mechanisms favoring SP cells and suggest that Hedgehog signaling may provide a viable target for improving ovarian cancer survival.