Side Population Cells from Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells Have Bilateral Differentiation Ability

Side Population Cells from Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells Have Bilateral Differentiation Ability

For understanding the role and significance of SP cells from hepatocellular carcinoma in hepatocarcinogenesis, development, relapse and metastasis, we chose AFP and CK-19 as the markers of bilateral differentiation, which are markers of hepatoma carcinoma cell and bile duct cell respectively. Using those markers, we observed the differentiation state and ability of SP and non-SP cells in vivo and vitro. We used Flow Cytometry to analyze and sort the SP and non-SP cells in established HCC line--MHCC97. We investigated the expression levels of AFP and CK-19 genes by RT-PCR, Western blotting, Immunofluorescence staining and xenograft transplant experiment on nude mice. It was founded that the percent of SP cells in established HCC line was 0.25%. We found that the expression of AFP in SP was significantly higher than in non-SP cells. But, there was no different between expression of CK-19 in SP and non-SP cells. In xenograft transplant experiment, there were a few cells displayed bilateral positive of AFP and CK-19 in tumor formations. It is seemed that SP cells from hepatocellular carcinoma did display bilateral differentiation markers, AFP and CK-19. And we found that SP cells have bilateral differentiation ability through xenograft transplant experiment. It proved primitive characteristics of SP cells. On the other hand, as AFP and CK-19 being markers of HCC poor prognosis, those dates also implied SP cells from hepatocellular carcinoma may play a important role in HCC pathological procedures, such as hepatocarcinogenesis, development, relapse and metastasis.