Open AccessNovel population of small tumour-initiating stem cells in the ovaries of women with borderline ovarian cancer
Author(s) -
Irma VirantKlun,
Martin Štimpfel
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep34730
Subject(s) - biology , stem cell , ovarian cancer , cancer stem cell , cancer research , homeobox protein nanog , population , adult stem cell , ovary , microbiology and biotechnology , cellular differentiation , cancer , gene , embryonic stem cell , induced pluripotent stem cell , genetics , medicine , environmental health
Small stem cells with diameters of up to 5 μm previously isolated from adult human ovaries indicated pluripotency and germinal lineage, especially primordial germ cells, and developed into primitive oocyte-like cells in vitro . Here, we show that a comparable population of small stem cells can be found in the ovarian tissue of women with borderline ovarian cancer, which, in contrast to small stem cells in “healthy” ovaries, formed spontaneous tumour-like structures and expressed some markers related to pluripotency and germinal lineage. The gene expression profile of these small putative cancer stem cells differed from similar cells sorted from “healthy” ovaries by 132 upregulated and 97 downregulated genes, including some important forkhead box and homeobox genes related to transcription regulation, developmental processes, embryogenesis, and ovarian cancer. These putative cancer stem cells are suggested to be a novel population of ovarian tumour-initiating cells in humans.