Abstract
The Piwi family genes are highly conserved during evolution and play essential roles in stem cell self-renewal in diverse organisms. However, data on the function of Hiwi gene (a human homologue of Piwi family) in cancer stem cells remains obscure. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of Hiwi gene in the lung cancer stem cells. A rare population of SSCloAldebr cells had been identified as the lung cancer stem cells in our previous study. Compared with the human lung adenocarcinoma SPC-A1 cells, Hiwi gene was found to be highly expressed in the lung cancer stem cell population SSCloAldebr cells. After Hiwi gene knockdown in SSCloAldebr cells using a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting Hiwi, the sphere formation ability and colony forming capacity of SSCloAldebr cells were remarkably impaired. Moreover, the in vivo studies showed that Hiwi knockdown suppressed the tumor growth of SSCloAldebr cells in nude mice. These findings suggest that Hiwi gene plays an important role in maintaining the stem-cell properties of the lung cancer stem cells and may be a potential target for lung cancer therapy. Keywords: Hiwi gene, RNA interference, shRNA, lung cancer stem cell.
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