Do pancreatic cancer cells carrying CD133 show greater growth, migration and invasion in laboratory tests?

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Pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis, creating an urgent need for new therapeutic strategies. Cancer stem cells (CSC) have been reported as a new therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer, but their specific role is not fully understood. This study investigated the functional roles of CD133-positive (CD133+) cells as candidate pancreatic cancer stem cells.

In this laboratory comparative cell-line study, researchers assessed CD133 expression in pancreatic cancer cells using real-time RT-PCR and flow cytometry. They compared proliferation, migration and invasion between CD133+ and CD133-negative (CD133−) cells in two pancreatic cancer cell lines, KP-2 and SUIT-2.

CD133 was expressed in 67% of KP-2 cells and 53% of SUIT-2 cells, but was not expressed in primary normal pancreatic duct cells or stromal cells. CD133+ cells isolated by cell sorting showed increased proliferation under anchorage-independent conditions (P < 0.01) and increased migration and invasion, especially when co-cultured with primary pancreatic stromal cells (P < 0.001).

CXCR4 was markedly overexpressed in CD133+ cells and may be responsible for the increased invasion observed when these cells were co-cultured with SDF-1-positive pancreatic stromal cells.

The findings suggest that CD133+ cells display more malignant behavior, including increased proliferation, migration and invasion. The researchers concluded that targeting CD133+ cells may offer a possible new approach to treating pancreatic cancer.