Development of immune therapy which targets pancreatic cancer stem cells

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24390317
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Digestive surgery
• Research Institution: Yamaguchi University
• Principal Investigator: OKA Masaaki 山口大学, その他部局等, 学長 (70144946)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TSUNEDOMI Ryouichi 山口大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 助教 (10420514) ; YOSHIMURA Kiyoshi 国立がん研究センター, 先端医療開発センター, 分野長 (30346564) ; KURAMITSU Yasuhiro 山口大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 准教授 (50281811) ; HAMAMOTO Yoshihiko 山口大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 教授 (90198820)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 膵癌 / 癌免疫療法 / 癌幹細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been studied for their resistance to anticancer therapy and their ability to metastasize to distant organs. CSCs are difficult to study because their population is quite low in tumor specimens. We established a culture method to induce a pancreatic cancer stem-like cell (P-CSLC)-enriched population from human pancreatic cancer cell lines. Cells were cultured in our CSC-inducing medium. Obtained sphere cells showed the enriched population of CD24high, CD44high, epithelial ESAhigh, and CD44variant (CD44v)high. The induced cells had high tumorigenic potential. Thus, we established a culture method to induce a P-CSLCenriched population from human pancreatic cancer cell lines.
Moreover, we identified specific molecules, which highly expressed in P-CSLC by proteome analysis. One of those molecules was co-expressed with CD44v and its high expression in pancreatic cancer specimens and tumor size>20mm were independent prognostic factors for pancreatic cancer.

Free Research Field

消化器外科学