Defined conditions for the isolation and expansion of basal prostate progenitor cells of mouse and human origin.

Methods to isolate and culture primary prostate epithelial stem/progenitor cells (PESCs) have proven difficult and ineffective. Here, we present a method to grow and expand both murine and human basal PESCs long term in serum- and feeder-free conditions. The method enriches for adherent mouse basal PESCs with a Lin(-)SCA-1(+)CD49f(+)TROP2(high) phenotype.

Expression and prognostic significance of cancer stem cell markers CD24 and CD44 in urothelial bladder cancer xenografts and patients undergoing radical cystectomy.

Objectives: To evaluate CD24/CD44/CD47 cancer stem cell marker expressions in bladder cancer (BCa) and provide data on their prognostic significance for clinical outcome in patients undergoing radical cystectomy (RC).

Material And Methods: Primary BCa tissue was used for xenograft studies. A tissue microarray was prepared using specimens from a cohort of 132 patients.

Label retaining cells in cancer--the dormant root of evil?

The phenomenon of cellular dormancy has been observed in normal adult stem cells in many different tissues such as the skin, the intestine and the hematopoietic system. These dormant cells have been proposed to be important for life-long self-renewal and for the generation of the different cellular lineages. As tumor cells can share properties with normal stem cells, dormant cells might also exist within a tumor.

Identification of a population of blood circulating tumor cells from breast cancer patients that initiates metastasis in a xenograft assay.

It has been hypothesized that carcinoma metastasis is initiated by a subpopulation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) found in the blood of patients. However, although the presence of CTCs is an indicator of poor prognosis in several carcinoma entities, the existence and phenotype of metastasis-initiating cells (MICs) among CTCs has not been experimentally demonstrated. Here we developed a xenograft assay and used it to show that primary human luminal breast cancer CTCs contain MICs that give rise to bone, lung and liver metastases in mice.

Cooperation of tissue factor cytoplasmic domain and PAR2 signaling in breast cancer development.

Constitutive expression of tissue factor (TF) by cancer cells triggers local activation of the coagulation cascade and promotes breast cancer progression through cell signaling involving protease activated receptor (PAR)2. In human breast cancer, TF and PAR2 are up-regulated and TF cytoplasmic domain phosphorylation is correlated with relapse. Here we show that cancer cell PAR2 signaling promotes angiogenesis independent of PAR2 phosphorylation at the recognized β-arrestin recruitment site.