Introduction

Induction of epithelial mesenchymal transitions (EMT) in cancer cells results in acquisition of mesenchymal traits and recent evidence showing that overexpression of EMT marker is associated with generation of cancer stem cells (CSCs). CSCs characteristic is self-renewal and pluripotency thus capable to initiating and sustaining tumor growth. Our previous data demonstrated EMT in colorectal cel carcinoma (CRC) induced by cancer-associated fibroblast (CAFs) secretome. The aim of present study is to investigate the effect of CAFs secretome to the stemness of CRC.

Methods

Conditioned medium (CM) of fibroblast from cancerous and non-cancerous colon of three adeno carcinoma colorectal (CRC) patients was collected and added to the HT-29 CRC cell culture. The mRNA levels of CD44, CD133 as stemness marker in HT-29 cells were determined using qRT-PCR. Analysis data using student’s t test and p<0,05 considered as significant.

Results

CM of CAF, compared to CM-non CAF from all the patient could increase significantly the CD44 and CD133 mRNA level as the stemness marker. Related to our previous study about EMT marker, there is a coincidence increase of mRNA expression of EMT and stemness marker possibly reflect the correlation between EMT process and stemness property acquisition in cancer cell.

Conclusions

The increase of stemness marker in colorectal cell carcinoma could be induce by secreted-factor from CAFs. These acquisition of stemness property possibly related to EMT process in cancer cells.

Keywords:

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cancer stem cells, cancer-associated fibroblast