Pluripotency-associated genes in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cells are reactivated by a unique epigenetic sub-microenvironment

The selection and identification of SP in 50 CNE-2 single cell clones were performed by flow cytometry. The transwell assay and immunofluorescence staining were used to measure migration and cancer stem cell characters of non-SP single clone cells cultured with conditioned medium respectively. The subtraction suppression hybridization (SSH) technique and northern blotting analysis was applied to explore the pluripotency-associated genes under a unique epigenetic sub-microenvironment.Among 50 clones, only one did not possess SP subpopulation while others did. The non-SP cells induced by macrophage-like cells showed more aggressive characters, which increased cell migration compared with the control cells and showed some fraction of SP phenotype. These cells expressed distinguished level of pluripotency-associated genes such as ADP-ribosylation factor-like 6 interacting protein (ARMER), poly (rC) binding protein 1 (PCBP1) and pyruvate dehydrogenase E1-β subunit (PDHB) when subjected to the environment.To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that non-SP single-clone cells can be induced to generate a SP phenotype when they are cultured with conditioned medium of macrophage-like cells, which is associated with the reactivation of pluripotency-associated genes.The hypothesis of cancer stem cell (CSC) suggests that neoplastic clones are maintained exclusively by a small subpopulation of cells that give rise to phenotypically diverse cancer cells [1-3]. CSCs were first identified in 1990s in hematological malignancies, mainly acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and also in other subtypes like AML M0, M1, M2, M4, and M5, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and multiple myeloma [4,5]. This subset of cancer cells was also found in solid tumors in the breast, brain, lung, prostrate, testis, ovary, stomach, colon, skin, liver and pancreas [6-11]. Thus, there is overwhelming evidence that certain pathways which regulate or maintain t