Research

Gene expression profiling of cancer stem cell in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells

Dong-Cheol Seo¹ , Ji-Min Sung¹ , Hee-Jung Cho¹ , Hee Yi¹ , Kun-Ho Seo² , In-Soo Choi³ , Dong-Ku Kim⁴ , Jin-Suk Kim¹ , Abd El-Aty AM¹ and Ho-Chul Shin¹

¹  Department of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology College of Veterinary Medicine, Konkuk University, 1 Hwayang-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Republic of Korea

²  Department of Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Konkuk University, 1 Hwayang-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Republic of Korea

³  Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, Konkuk University, 1 Hwayang-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Republic of Korea

⁴  Cell and Gene Therapy Research Institute, Pochon CHA University, CHA General Hospital, Seoul 135-081, Republic of Korea

author email corresponding author email

Molecular Cancer 2007, 6:75doi:10.1186/1476-4598-6-75

Published:	22 November 2007

Abstract

Background

The studies on cancer-stem-cells (CSCs) have attracted so much attention in recent years as possible therapeutic implications. This study was carried out to investigate the gene expression profile of CSCs in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells.

Results

We isolated CSCs from A549 cell line of which side population (SP) phenotype revealed several stem cell properties. After staining the cell line with Hoechst 33342 dye, the SP and non-side population (non-SP) cells were sorted using flow cytometric analysis. The mRNA expression profiles were measured using an Affymetrix GeneChip^® oligonucleotide array. Among the sixty one differentially expressed genes, the twelve genes inclusive three poor prognostic genes; Aldo-keto reductase family 1, member C1/C2 (AKR1C1/C2), Transmembrane 4 L six family member 1 nuclear receptor (TM4SF1), and Nuclear receptor subfamily 0, group B, member 1 (NR0B1) were significantly up-regulated in SP compared to non-SP cells.

Conclusion

This is the first report indicating the differences of gene expression pattern between SP and non-SP cells in A549 cells. We suggest that the up-regulations of the genes AKR1C1/C2, TM4SF1 and NR0B1 in SP of human adenocarcinoma A549 cells could be a target of poor prognosis in anti-cancer therapy.