2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The radiosensitivity and effects of hypoxia in human cancer stem cells

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21791235
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Radiation science
Research Institution	Japan Atomic Energy Agency (2010) National Institute of Radiological Sciences (2009)
Principal Investigator	TAKAHASHI Momoko 独立行政法人日本原子力研究開発機構, 量子ビーム応用研究部門, 博士研究員 (10531460)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	がん幹細胞 / 放射線 / 低酸素
Research Abstract	Recently several studies demonstrated that there is a small fraction in solid tumor which is highly resistant to ionizing radiation and that the radioresistant tumor cells often express some stem cell markers. This small population of cells is characteristic of stem cells and called “cancer stem cell”. It is highly resistant to ionizing radiation and it is suggested that resistance of cancers to both radiation and chemotherapeutic agents can be attributed to the features of the cancer stem cells. The purpose of this study is the analysis of cancer stem-like cells derived from established glioblastoma cell line and radiosensitivity in cancer stem-like cells using X-rays and heavy ion beam. As a result, it has been shown that sub population of human glioblastoma cell line A172 grown in non serum free medium showed cancer stem cell-like property and radioresistance to both X-rays and heavy ion beam.