Functional role of CD133 in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver malignancy cancer and rank for the third leading cause of all cancer-related deaths in the world. Research reveals that cancer stem cells contribute to the formation and growth of cancer cells. Cancer stem cells have stem cell-like characteristics, including tumorigenesis, tumor progression and metastasis, and drug resistance. Cancer stem cells; therefore, play an important role in understanding the tumorigenesis of HCC. CD133 has been regarded as the tumor-initiating cell marker of HCC. Recent study suggests that CD133 also confer to the features of cancer stem cells, but the mechanism remains unclear. To better understand how CD133 contributes to the tumorigenesis and metastasis, we have constructed deletion mutants of CD133 and characterized their effect in HCC cell growth. We adapted the stable inducible system to express the full length and its cytoplasmic domain deletion mutants of CD133 in several HCC cells. Our result indicates that cytoplasmic domain of CD133 is required for the membrane translocation and to induce the DNA instability, supporting the oncogenic role of CD133.