CD24-low Cancer stem-cell like cell fraction in Notch inhibited transformed human esophageal cells. Homo sapiens

Comparison of CD24-low/CD44-high (CD44H) and CD24-high/CD44-low (CD44L) cell fractions in transformed human esophageal cells with Notch inhibition. CD44H cells display enhanced malignant potential (e.g. tumorigenicity, colony formation) compared to CD44L cells. Overall design: NOTCH signaling was suppressed by retrovirus-mediated stable transduction of dominant-negative Mastermind-like1 (DNMAML1) in transformed human esophageal keratinocyte cell line EPC2-T (EPC2-hTERT-EGFR-cyclin D1-p53R175H) as described (Gastroenterology. 2010;139:2113-23), resulting in creation of cell line designated 4801. 4801 cells were sorted by flow cytometry for a cell fraction expressing a low level of CD24 and a high level of CD44 (CD44H) as well as that expressing a high level of CD24 and a low level of CD44 (CD44L). The former (CD44H) displayed fibroblast-like mesenchymal morphology while the latter (CD44L) remained cuboidal epithelioid morphology in culture. CD24-low and CD24-high cells were subjected to RNA extraction and gene array experiments.