Abstract 4280: Color-coded in vivo imaging of tumor stem cells and co-implanted non-stem cancer cells

Abstract

Abstract We have developed color-coded simultaneous imaging of tumor growth, metastasis and drug resistance of co-implanted cancer stem cells (CSC) and non stem cancer cells (NSCC). In this study, CD 133+ Huh-7 human hepatoma cells were considered as liver cancer CSC, and CD133− Huh-7 cells were considered liver cancer NSCC. CD133+ cells were isolated by magnetic bead sorting. CSC were labeled with GFP and NSCC were labeled with RFP using retroviruses. The same number of GFP CSC and the RFP NSCC were mixed and co-cultured or injected subcutaneously or in the spleen of nude mice. CSC had higher proliferative potential compared with NSCC in vitro. Dual-color imaging demonstrated that CSC were more tumorigenic and more resistant to chemotherapy in vivo than NSCC. To compare the effect of CSC and NSCC on stromal cells or blood vessels in tumors, non-colored CSC or NSCC along with RFP stromal cells were implanted into nestin driven (ND)-GFP transgenic nude mice which express ND-GFP in nascent blood vessels. Extensive RFP-expressing stromal and GFP-expressing nascent blood vessels cells were imaged in the tumors formed from CSC. Tumors formed from NSCCs had less GFP-expressing nascent blood vessels and RFP-expressing stromal cells suggesting that more stromal cells and blood vessels were induced by CSC than NSCC. Thus, liver cancer CSC have more malignant characteristics such as higher proliferation, more resistance to chemotherapy, and induction of stromal cells and blood vessels compared with NSCC. Color-coded imaging of CSC and NSCC is a powerful tool to investigate the characteristics and roles of CSC and NSCC in tumor progression. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4280.