Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been studied for their resistance to anticancer therapy and their ability to metastasize to distant organs. CSCs are difficult to study because their population is quite low in tumor specimens. We established a culture method to induce a pancreatic cancer stem-like cell (P-CSLC)-enriched population from human pancreatic cancer cell lines. Cells were cultured in our CSC-inducing medium. Obtained sphere cells showed the enriched population of CD24high, CD44high, epithelial ESAhigh, and CD44variant (CD44v)high. The induced cells had high tumorigenic potential. Thus, we established a culture method to induce a P-CSLCenriched population from human pancreatic cancer cell lines.
Moreover, we identified specific molecules, which highly expressed in P-CSLC by proteome analysis. One of those molecules was co-expressed with CD44v and its high expression in pancreatic cancer specimens and tumor size>20mm were independent prognostic factors for pancreatic cancer.
