Abstract 3052: Identification and characterization of DPPA2 as a potential cancer stem cell marker in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Cancer stem cells (CSC) are a small subpopulation of tumor cells that share many properties with embryonic stem cells, including the ability to differentiate and self-renew. The study of stemness-associated genes might give us a hint on the tumorigenesis and tumor progression. By comparing the expression profiles of human embryonic stem cells (ESC), endoderm, liver progenitors, premature hepatocytes as well as two pairs of non-tumor and tumor tissues of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we found that the gene Developmental Pluripotency Associated 2 (DPPA2) was highly expressed in the stage of ESC, and decreased dramatically along with development, suggesting its role as a stemness associated gene. Analysis of HCC clinical samples showed that elevated expression of DPPA2 was significantly associated with differentiation, TNM stage, the number of tumor nodules and thrombus, as well as poorer prognosis. Functional studies demonstrated that DPPA2 - overexpressed cells displayed enhanced stemness feature, increasing the ability of self-renewal, tumorigenicity and chemo-resistance. We also found that overexpression of DPPA2 could increase the expression of some cancer stem cell markers. RNA-sequencing results suggested that Wnt signaling was abnormally activated after DPPA2 overexpression. Our findings point to a new potential cancer stem cell marker which may provide an attractive therapeutic target for HCC patients. Citation Format: Dandan Yu, Qian Yan, Yu Zhang, Ling Guo, Chuanyue Wu, Xin-yuan Guan. Identification and characterization of DPPA2 as a potential cancer stem cell marker in hepatocellular carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3052.