Fluorouracil selectively enriches stem-like leukemic cells in a leukemic cell line.

Recent studies have reported that cancer stem cells (CSCs) could be isolated from solid cancer cell lines, in which the purity of CSCs was higher than that from tumor tissues. Separation of CSCs from leukemic cell lines was rarely reported. In this study, CD34(+)CD38(-)stem-like cell subsets in human KG-1a leukemic cell line were enriched by cytotoxic agent 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).