This article reviews the major studies supporting the existence and importance of CD133+ CSCs in the maintenance, metastasis and drug resistance of lung cancer.
The stem cell-like resistance to injury and proliferative potentials of bronchioalveolar stem cells (BASCs) and alveolar epithelial type II cells (AEC2), as well as cells that express the cancer stem cell marker glycoprotein prominin-1 (CD133) or markers for side populations make them potential reservoirs of lung cancer stem cells.
We found that the CD133 expression level was up-regulated in the lung cancer cell lines N417, H358, and A549, when these cell lines were cultured under hypoxic conditions.
Immunohistochemical analysis of 141 resected non-small cell lung cancers showed tumor cell expression of CD44 in 50.4% of tumors while no CD34, and CD133 expression was observed in tumor cells.