Establishment and characterization of multi-drug resistant, prostate carcinoma-initiating stem-like cells from human prostate cancer cell lines 22RV1

Multi-drug resistance is an important element which leads to ineffectiveness of chemotherapeutics. To identify subpopulations of cancerous prostate cells with mutli-drug resistance and cancer stem-cell properties has recently become a major research interest. We identified a subpopulation from the prostate cancer cell line 22RV1, which have high surface expression of both CD117 and ABCG2. We found this subpopulation of cells termed CD117⁺/ABCG2⁺ also overexpress stem cells markers such as Nanog, Oct4, Sox2, Nestin, and CD133. These cells are highly prolific and are also resistant to treatment with a variety of chemotherapeutics such as casplatin, paclitaxel, adriamycin, and methotrexate. In addition, CD117⁺/ABCG2⁺ cells can readily establish tumors in vivo in a relatively short time. To investigate the mechanism of aggressive tumor growth and drug resistance, we examined the CpG islands on the ABCG2 promoter of CD117⁺/ABCG2⁺ cells and found they were remarkably hypomethylated. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed high levels of both histone 3 acetylation and H3K4 trimethylation at the CpG islands on the ABCG2 promoter. Our these data suggest that CD117⁺/ABCG2⁺ cells could be reliably sorted from the human prostate cancer cell line 22RV1, and represent a valuable model for studying cancer cell physiology and multi-drug resistance. Furthermore, identification and study of these cells could have a profound impact on selection of individual treatment strategies, clinical outcome, and the design or selection of the next generation of chemotherapeutic agents.