Identification and characterization of hepatic cancer stem cells using oncogene-regulatory expressing transgenic mice

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that CSCs have self-renewal activities and multipotencies, which display a hierarchy in tumor tissues. This study aimed to demonstrate that alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-producing cells in cholangiocarcinomas (CC) possessed CSC-like properties. The transgene vector that contained enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) under the control of the human AFP enhancer/promoter was transfected into human CC cell lines. The AFP-EGFP-positive cells in RBE had self-renewal activity, differentiation ability, and tumorigenicity. The Notch signaling pathway was suggested to play an important role to maintain the stemness of the AFP-EGFP-positive cells. In addition, in order to explore the origin of CSCs, we successfully generated oncogene-regulatory expressing transgenic mice. One cell line was obtained from only fetal hepatocytes derived from the transgenic mice, thus suggesting that CSCs were generated from transformed stem cells.