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Dormancy activation mechanism of oral cavity cancer stem cells

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are targeted primarily at rapidly proliferating cancer cells and are unable to eliminate cancer stem cells in the G0 phase. Thus, these treatments cannot prevent the recurrence and metastasis of cancer. Understanding the mechanisms by which cancer stem cells are maintained in the dormant G0 phase, and how they become active is key to developing new cancer therapies. The current study found that the anti-cancer drug 5-fluorouracil, acting on the oral squamous cell carcinoma KB cell line, selectively killed proliferating cells while sparing cells in the G0 phase. Bisulfite sequencing PCR showed that demethylation of the Sox2 promoter led to the expression of Sox2. This then resulted in the transformation of cancer stem cells from the G0 phase to the division stage and suggested that the transformation of cancer stem cells from the G0 phase to the division stage is closely related to an epigenetic modification of the cell.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 81370100 to Xinshan Jia).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Implant Dentistry, School of Stomatology, China Medical University, Shenyang, China

    Xiang Chen, Baohong Zhao, Dehao Shang & Chunfu Deng

  2. Department of Pharmacology, College of Life Science and Biopharmaceutics, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, China

    Xin Li

  3. Department of Pathology, School of Stomatology, China Medical University, Shenyang, China

    Ming Zhong

  4. Department of Pathology, the First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, China

    Xinshan Jia

  5. Department of Pathology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, China Medical University, Shenyang, China

    Xinshan Jia

Authors
  1. Xiang Chen
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  2. Xin Li
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  3. Baohong Zhao
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  4. Dehao Shang
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  5. Ming Zhong
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  6. Chunfu Deng
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  7. Xinshan Jia
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Correspondence to Chunfu Deng.

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Chen, X., Li, X., Zhao, B. et al. Dormancy activation mechanism of oral cavity cancer stem cells. Tumor Biol. 36, 5551–5559 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-015-3225-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-015-3225-5

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