Saturday, March 27, 2010

CSC news roundup 2010-03-27

Monday, March 15, 2010

CSC news roundup 2010-03-16

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Conditioned medium induces generation of side population cells

Pluripotency-associated genes in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cells are reactivated by a unique epigenetic sub-microenvironment by Jun-Xia Cao and 8 co-authors, including Quentin Liu, BMC Cancer 2010(Feb 25); 10: 68 [PubMed citation][Full text via PMC][Full text from journal (via Libre OA)]. Conclusion section of the Abstract:
To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that non-SP single-clone cells can be induced to generate a SP phenotype when they are cultured with conditioned medium of macrophage-like cells, which is associated with the reactivation of pluripotency-associated genes.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

MicroRNA-34a is a potential therapeutic agent for glioma SC?

See the open-access article: microRNA-34a is tumor suppressive in brain tumors and glioma stem cells by Fadila Guessous and 7 co-authors, including Roger Abounader, Cell Cycle 2010(Mar 18); 9(6) [Epub ahead of print][FriendFeed entry][PubMed citation]. Last 3 sentences of the Abstract:
The new data show that miR-34a expression inhibits various malignancy endpoints in glioma stem cells. Importantly, they also show for the first time that miR-34a expression induces glioma stem cell differentiation. Altogether, the data suggest that miR-34a is a tumor suppressor and a potential potent therapeutic agent that acts by targeting multiple oncogenic pathways in brain tumors and by inducing the differentiation of cancer stem cells.