Using cancer stem cells as a model to study differentiation program in normal stem cells

Pioneering work has been done on cancer stem cells, and it has been found that they could give rise to a heterogeneous population of cells. Cancer stem cells were found on brain tumors, colorectal cancers and breast cancers.

Cancer stem cells are in many ways similar to normal stems cells. Both are capable of self renewal and asymmetric division that gives rise to a heterogeneous population of cells. The only difference is that the former is a rogue agent, and is refractory to inhibitory signals in its surrounding milieu. However, studying the pathways that allows it to give rise to a heterogeneous population of cells is pretty interesting, and may give researchers an idea how to grow a tissue from a normal stem cell, except that this time it's growing normal tissue as oppose to cancerous tissue.

Citations

1) Singh SK, Clarke ID, Terasaki M, Bonn VE, Hawkins C, Squire J, Dirks PB. Identification of a cancer stem cell in human brain tumors. Cancer Res. 2003 Sep 15;63(18):5821-8.

2) Al-Hajj M, Wicha MS, Benito-Hernandez A, Morrison SJ, Clarke MF. Prospective identification of tumorigenic breast cancer cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Apr 1;100(7):3983-8.

3) O'Brien CA, Pollett A, Gallinger S, Dick JE. A human colon cancer cell capable of initiating tumour growth in immunodeficient mice. Nature. 2007 Jan 4;445(7123):106-10.