Bruno Azzarone, Stefania Bruno, Cristina Romei, Federica Sabatini, Sophie Gad, Sophie Ferlicot, Giovanni Camussi, Yosra Messai, Annalisa Pezzolo, Grazia Maria Spaggiari, Giulia Chiabotto, Julien Giron Michel, Meriem Hasmim, Claudine Kieda, Eric Angevin, Sandy Azzi, Vito Pistoia, Denis Clay, Cindy Gallerne, Salem Chouaib, Pierre Eid, Vincent Lecoz, Bernard Escudier, Division of Experimental Oncology, Lausanne Cancer Centre, Gaslini Institute, Département d’Innovation Thérapeutique et essais précoces [Gustave Roussy] (DITEP), Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR), Cytokines et Immunologie des Tumeurs Humaines (U753), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Laboratoire de Pathologie, Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (AP-HP)-Hôpital Bicêtre, Centre de biophysique moléculaire (CBM), Université d'Orléans (UO)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC), Les cellules souches : de leurs niches à leurs applications thérapeutiques, Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Oncologie génito-urinaire, Département de médecine oncologique [Gustave Roussy], Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR)-Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR), Università degli studi di Torino (UNITO), Oncologie virale (OV), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Physiopathologie Toulouse Purpan (CPTP), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université d'Orléans (UO)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin (UNITO)
// Meriem Hasmim 1, 2, * , Stefania Bruno 3, * , Sandy Azzi 2 , Cindy Gallerne 2 , Julien Giron Michel 2 , Giulia Chiabotto 4 , Vincent Lecoz 2 , Cristina Romei 5 , Grazia Maria Spaggiari 5 , Annalisa Pezzolo 6 , Vito Pistoia 6 , Eric Angevin 1, 7 , Sophie Gad 1, 8 , Sophie Ferlicot 1, 9 , Yosra Messai 1 , Claudine Kieda 10 , Denis Clay 11 , Federica Sabatini 12 , Bernard Escudier 1, 7 , Giovanni Camussi 4 , Pierre Eid 2 , Bruno Azzarone 5 , Salem Chouaib 1 1 INSERM U 1186, Equipe labellisee Ligue Contre le Cancer, Gustave Roussy Campus, Villejuif, France 2 INSERM UMR 1014, Lavoisier Building, Paul Brousse Hospital, Villejuif, France 3 Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Healthy Science, Molecular Biotechnology Center, University of Torino, Turin, Italy 4 Department of Medical Science, University of Torino, Medical School, Torino, Italy 5 DIMES, UNIGE, Genova, Italy 6 Laboratory of Oncology Giannina Gaslini Institute, Genoa, Italy 7 Medical Oncology Department, Gustave Roussy Campus, Villejuif, France 8 Laboratoire de Genetique Oncologique EPHE, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, France 9 Universite Paris-Sud, Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, Service d'Anatomo-Pathologie, Hopital Bicetre, Le Kremlin-Bicetre, France 10 Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire, CNRS UPR 4301, Orleans, France 11 INSERM UMR 972, Paul Brousse Hospital, Villejuif, France 12 Stem Cell and Cell Therapy Laboratory, Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Salem Chouaib, e-mail: salem.chouaib@gustaveroussy.fr Bruno Azzarone, e-mail: bazzarone@hotmail.com Keywords: clear cell renal cell carcinoma, cancer stem cells, patient-derived xenografts, CD133, EpCAM Received: July 24, 2015 Accepted: October 08, 2015 Published: November 02, 2015 ABSTRACT As rapidly developing patient-derived xenografts (PDX) could represent potential sources of cancer stem cells (CSC), we selected and characterized non-cultured PDX cell suspensions from four different renal carcinomas (RCC). Only the cell suspensions from the serial xenografts (PDX-1 and PDX-2) of an undifferentiated RCC (RCC-41) adapted to the selective CSC medium. The cell suspension derived from the original tumor specimen (RCC-41-P-0) did not adapt to the selective medium and strongly expressed CSC-like markers (CD133 and CD105) together with the non-CSC tumor marker E-cadherin. In comparison, PDX-1 and PDX-2 cells exhibited evolution in their phenotype since PDX-1 cells were CD133 high /CD105-/Ecad low and PDX-2 cells were CD133 low /CD105-/Ecad-. Both PDX subsets expressed additional stem cell markers (CD146/CD29/OCT4/NANOG/Nestin) but still contained non-CSC tumor cells. Therefore, using different cell sorting strategies, we characterized 3 different putative CSC subsets (RCC-41-PDX-1/CD132+, RCC-41-PDX-2/CD133-/EpCAM low and RCC-41-PDX-2/CD133 + /EpCAM bright ). In addition, transcriptomic analysis showed that RCC-41-PDX-2/CD133 − over-expressed the pluripotency gene ERBB4, while RCC-41-PDX-2/CD133 + over-expressed several tumor suppressor genes. These three CSC subsets displayed ALDH activity, formed serial spheroids and developed serial tumors in SCID mice, although RCC-41-PDX-1/CD132 + and RCC-41-PDX-2/CD133 + displayed less efficiently the above CSC properties. RCC-41-PDX-1/CD132 + tumors showed vessels of human origin with CSC displaying peri-vascular distribution. By contrast, RCC-41-PDX-2 originated tumors exhibiting only vessels of mouse origin without CSC peri-vascular distribution. Altogether, our results indicate that PDX murine microenvironment promotes a continuous redesign of CSC phenotype, unmasking CSC subsets potentially present in a single RCC or generating ex novo different CSC-like subsets.