Treatment of agarose-agarose RENCA macrobeads with docetaxel selects for OCT4(+) cells with tumor-initiating capability.

ABSTRACT: The cancer stem cell (CSC) theory depicts such cells as having the capacity to produce both identical CSCs (symmetrical division) and tumor-amplifying daughter cells (asymmetric division). CSCs are thought to reside in niches similar to those of normal stem cells as described for neural, intestinal, and epidermal tissue, are resistant to chemotherapy, and are responsible for tumor recurrence. We recently described the niche-like nature of mouse renal adenocarcinoma (RENCA) cells following encapsulation in agarose macrobeads. In this paper we tested the hypothesis that encapsulated RENCA colonies function as an in vitro model of a CSC niche and that the majority of cells would undergo chemotherapy-induced death, followed by tumor recurrence. After exposure to docetaxel (5 µg/ml), 50% of cel

SUBMITTER: Gazda LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3912038 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature