Cancer stem cells of salivary gland tumors : identification and contribution to histological morphogenesis

癌症干细胞（CSC）是肿瘤内具有自我更新和诱导构成肿瘤的癌细胞的异质谱系的能力的限定细胞。肿瘤干细胞与肿瘤的组织发生、形态发生及预后有关。我们根据CSC的免疫组织化学分布研究了其与形态发生的关系。涎腺肿瘤尤其是恶性肿瘤细胞外基质周围可见高密度的CSC。这一发现表明细胞外基质控制着CSCs的活性。在特征性唾液腺肿瘤的形态发生中，CSC被认为是由细胞外基质作为微环境（小生境）激活的。

Cancer stem cells(CSCs) are defined cells within a tumor that possess the capacity to self-renew and to induce the heterogeneous lineages of cancer cells that comprise the tumor. CSCs are related to histogenesis, morphogenesis and prognosis of the tumors. We investigated the relationship with morphogenesis based on the immunohistochemical distribution of CSCs. Salivary gland tumors, especially malignancies showed high density of the CSCs adjacent to the extracellular matrices. The finding suggested that the extracellular matrices control the activity of CSCs. In the morphogenesis of the characteristic salivary gland tumor, CSCs are considered to be activated by the extracellular matrices as a microenvironment(niche).