Isolation and Characterization of Stemness Properties of Cancer Stem Cells with CD44+ Surface Marker from A2780 Cancer Cell Line

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. Ovarian cancer is a heterogeneous disease that is genomically and histopathologically very diverse. In spite of usual treatments, recurrence of this cancer is very common due to the lack of complete eradication of certain types of cancer cells. These cells, known as cancer stem cells, have different stemness properties.

In the present study, we isolated cancer stem cells (CSCs) with CD44 surface marker from ovarian A2780 cell line, and examined the invasion, growth, and differentiation properties and ALDH1 expression of isolated CD44+ cells compared to CD44- cells. The expression level of CD44 in this cell line was evaluated by flow cytometry (FCM) technique. Then, the isolation of these cells was performed by magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) technique using specific microbeads, and FCM was used to confirm the isolation efficacy. Invasion, growth rate, differentiation percentage, and expression rate of ALDH1 in CD44+ cells were evaluated and compared with CD44- cells

CD44+ CSCs, compared to CD44- cells, not only had the ability to invade other tissues, and differentiate to epithelial cells in culture medium containing serum, but also had faster growth rate and higher ALDH1expression in comparison with the control.

Isolation of cancer stem cells has great importance in the targeted treatment of ovarian cancer and inhibition of tumor recurrence