Relationship between surface markers characteristic and tumorigenic ability in rat hepatocarcinoma cells

    ZHOU Siª²Lang, LI Peng, ZHANG Jiª²Ren

    Oncology Center, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical Univerª²sity, Guangzhou 510282, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To study the relationship between surface markers characteristic and tumorigenic ability in rat hepatocarcinoma cells. METHODS: The primary liver carcinoma in rats were induced by diethylnitrosamine. Tumor cells from 8 rats with primary liver carcinoma were separated according to rat oval cell (OVC) surface markers such as CD34, cª²Kit, Thyª²1, AFP, CK7, CK8,CK14,CK18,CK19 and GGT.The tumor in nude rats which had been injected with hepatocarcinoma cells (10 OVC marker negative or positive cells ) for 1 month were weighted respectively. The subpopulations of hepatocarcinoma cells, which had a stronger ability to cause tumor after injected to nude rats, were diluted to 1/100 or 1/10 of original density. Then we analyzed the tumorigenic ability of these subpopulations in a low cell density. RESULTS: The weight of the tumors in nude rats which had been injected with the CD34, Thyª²1, AFP, CK7, CK8 and GGT positive subpopulations was different from that of ones with the negative subpopulations (P<0.05 or 0.01). The cell subpopulation of AFP(+) or CK7(-) had a stronger ability to cause tumor when diluted to 1/100-1/10 of original density. CONCLUSION: Different subpopulations of the hepatocarcinoma cells had a different ability to cause tumor in rats. AFP(+) and CK7 (-) may be the markers characteristic of hepatocarcinoma stem cells. ......