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

肿瘤干细胞(CSCs)是指肿瘤内具有自我更新能力和诱导组成肿瘤的不同癌细胞谱系的细胞。肿瘤干细胞与肿瘤的组织发生、形态发生及预后密切相关。我们根据CSCs的免疫组织化学分布情况，探讨其与形态发生的关系。涎腺肿瘤，尤其是恶性肿瘤，表现为邻近细胞外基质的高密度CSCs。这一发现表明，细胞外基质控制着CSCs的活性。在涎腺肿瘤的形态发生过程中，肿瘤干细胞被认为是被细胞外基质激活的微环境。

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).