Lu Xu, Xin Tong, Sujie Zhang, Fan Yin, Xiaoyan Li, Huafeng Wei, Cheng Li, Yajun Guo, Jian Zhao
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of death in cancer patients worldwide. Understanding the molecular pathogenesis of HCC recurrence and chemoresistance is key to improving patients' prognosis. In this study, we report that downregulation of ASPP2, a member of the ankyrin-repeat-containing, SH3-domain-containing, and proline-rich-region-containing protein (ASPP) family, bestowed HCC cells with stem-like properties and resistance to chemotherapy, including the expansion of side population fractions, formation of hepatospheroids, expression of stem cell-associated genes, loss of chemosensitivity, and increased tumorigenicity in immunodeficient mice...
October 2016: Tumour Biology: the Journal of the International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine