Journal article
Characterisation of Mesothelioma-Initiating Cells and Their Susceptibility to Anti-Cancer Agents
Elham Alizadeh Pasdar, Michael Smits, Michael Stapelberg, Martina Bajzikova, Marina Stantic, Jacob Goodwin, Bing Yan, Jan Stursa, Jaromira Kovarova, Karishma Sachaphibulkij, Ayenachew Bezawork-Geleta, Margaryta Sobol, Anatoly Filimonenko, Marco Tomasetti, Renata Zobalova, Pavel Hozak, Lan-Feng Dong, Jiri Neuzil
PLOS ONE | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2015
Abstract
Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive type of tumour causing high mortality. One reason for this paradigm may be the existence of a subpopulation of tumour-initiating cells (TICs) that endow MM with drug resistance and recurrence. The objective of this study was to identify and characterise a TIC subpopulation in MM cells, using spheroid cultures, mesospheres, as a model of MM TICs. Mesospheres, typified by the stemness markers CD24, ABCG2 and OCT4, initiated tumours in immunodeficient mice more efficiently than adherent cells. CD24 knock-down cells lost the sphere-forming capacity and featured lower tumorigenicity. Upon serial transplantation, mesospheres were gradually more efficien..
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Awarded by European Regional Development Fund (the BIOCEV project)
Funding Acknowledgements
The work was supported in part by grants from the Australian Research Council, Cancer Council Queensland, and the European Regional Development Fund (the BIOCEV project, CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0109) to JN. EAP was supported by the Douglas Francis Green PhD Scholarship provided by the Queensland Asbestos-Related Disease Society. LFD was supported by the Griffith University Research Fellowship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.