The Expression of CD90 and EpCAM in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Lines and Characteristics Analysis of EpCAM₊ Cells

Abstract: The expression of CD90 and EpCAM was examined in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines，and EpCAM+ cells were isolated for biological characteristics study. Fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) was used to detect the expression of CD90 and EpCAM in five HCC cell lines (Bel-7403， Bel-7404， SMMC-7721， HepG2 and Sk-Hep-1). EpCAM+ cells and EpCAM– cells were sorted from HCC cell lines and their proliferation capacity and chemosensitivity to cisplatin were determined by CCK-8 assay; the colony-formation ability was observed in terms of tablet clone formation test. The percentage of EpCAM+ cells was 54.94% in SK-Hep-1 cell line， and EpCAM and CD90 were expressed in different cellular lineages respectively. The colony-formation ability and proliferation ability of EpCAM+ subpopulation were significantly higher than that of EpCAM– cells and unsorted cells (P<0.05). Cisplatin inhibited growth of EpCAM+ cells by 21.73%， significantly less than it inhibited the growth of EpCAM– cells (49.32%， P<0.05) and unsorted cells (39.51%， P<0.05). These results suggested that CD90 and EpCAM were independently expressed in HCC cell lines. EpCAM+ subpopulation sorted from HCC cell lines has properties of liver cancer stem cell， which possessed the ability of self-renewal， drug resistance， and stronger ability of forming colonies.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2015.01.0007