Characterization of cancer stem cell drug resistance in the human colorectal cancer cell lines HCT116 and SW480

Background: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) share a number of properties with somatic stem cells including heightened protective mechanisms and the ability to self-renew. CSCs are a critical subpopulation of cancer cells implicated in tumor formation, metastases and recurrence. Methods: We used serial colonosphere culture to enrich for CSCs from two human CRC cell lines. The expression of proposed colorectal CSC markers and multi-drug resistance genes were assessed via flow cytometry and RT-qPCR. Drug resistance gene expression and self-renewal ability were also determined following treatment with the chemotherapeutic 5-fluorouracil. Results: Colonosphere culture successfully enriched for a subpopulation of cells with CSC-related gene expression and heightened self-renewal ability, particularly in the SW480 cell line. Chemotherapy treatment significantly reduced sphere formation however a small fraction of cells survived treatment and retained their self-renewal ability. Conclusions: Our findings support the use of the sphere formation assay to study CSCs. The ability of cells to self-renew following chemotherapy treatment highlights the importance of targeting both the bulk of tumor cells and the CSC population to prevent recurrence in colorectal cancer. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.