CD44-high Cancer stem-cell like cell fraction in transformed human esophageal cells

Comparison of CD44-high/CD24-low (CD44H) and CD44-low/CD24-high (CD44L) cell fractions in transformed human esophageal cell line EPC2-T CD44H cells display enhanced malignant potential (e.g. tumorigenicity, colony formation) compared to CD44L cells. Transformed human esophageal keratinocyte cell line EPC2-T (EPC2-hTERT-EGFR-cyclin D1-p53R175H) appeared to contain two cell populations defined by high expression of CD44 (CD44H) as well as low expression of CD44 (CD44L). The former (CD44H) displayed fibroblast-like mesenchymal morphology while the latter (CD44L) remained cuboidal epithelioid morphology in culture. CD44H and CD44L cells were sorted by fluorescence-activated cell sortingand subjected to RNA extraction and gene array experiments.