WNT1 gene expression alters in heterogeneous population of prostate cancer cells; decreased expression pattern observed in CD133(+)/CD44(+) prostate cancer stem cell spheroids

Abstract

Purpose: Established cancer cell lines contain cancer stem cells (CSCs) which can propagate to form three dimensional (3D) tumor spheroids in vitro. Aberrant activation of WNT signaling is strongly implicated in the progression of cancer and controls CSCs properties. In this study we hypothesized that when cells were maintained as spheroids, the structure of CSCs could show differentiation between CSCs and non-CSCs.