Tumorspheres from transformed fibroblasts highlight the great plasticity of differentiated tumorigenic cells
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ABSTRACT: Tumors are heterogeneous tissues. A subpopulation of cells with stemness features (cancer stem cells: CSCs) has been implicated in tumor maintenance and progression. There is evidence that CSCs can originate from tumor cell dedifferentiation. Here we used in vitro transformed human fibroblasts (cen3tel cells) and the tumorsphere assay to search for and possibly characterize CSCs from differentiated transformed cells. To obtain tumorspheres, cen3tel cells were grown in the absence of serum and in the presence of growth factors. Sphere cells were analysed for the expression of specific genes and their genome wide gene expression profiles relative to cells grown in adhesion were determined by microarray analysis. Cen3tel cells formed spheres showing self-renewal capacity and Sox2 overexpression, suggesting that they contained a subset of cells with CSC-like features. Sphere cells displayed the deregulation of a c-MYC-miR-34a circuitry, likely associated with cell protection from apoptosis. Gene expression profiles of sphere cells revealed an extensive transcriptional reprogramming. Genes upregulated in tumorspheres identified processes related to tumorigenesis and stemness, such as chromatin organization, cholesterol biosynthetic pathway, apoptosis suppression, immunity and defense, interferon mediated immunity and cytokine and chemokine mediated signalling pathway. However, sphere cells were only slightly more tumorigenic in vivo than adherent cells. Our results indicate that tumorigenic cells obtained from differentiated human fibroblasts are highly plastic and can acquire cancer stem cells properties. However, tumorsphere cells are not the main tumorigenic population, highlighting a further level of complexity in tumor heterogeneity.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE109787 | GEO | 2018/12/25
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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