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Updated: Mar 14, 2026

Discovery of Driver Genes in Colorectal HT29-derived Cancer Stem-Like Tumorspheres
Published on: July 22, 2020
Activin pathway enhances colorectal cancer stem cell self-renew and tumor progression
Rui Liu1, Jun-Hua Wang2, Chengxiong Xu3
1Laboratory of Biophysics, School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea; Institute of Microbiology, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
Activin belongs to transforming growth factor (TGF)-β super family of growth and differentiation factors and activin pathway participated in broad range of cell process. Studies elaborated activin pathway maintain pluripotency in human stem cells and suggest that the function of activin/nodal signaling in self-renew would be conserved across embryonic and adult stem cells. In this study, we tried to determine the effect of activin signaling pathway in regulation of cancer stem cells as a potential target for cancer therapy in clinical trials. A population of colorectal cancer cells was selected by the treatment of activin A. This population of cell possessed stem cell character with sphere formation ability. We demonstrated activin pathway enhanced the colorectal cancer stem cells self-renew and contribute to colorectal cancer progression in vivo. Targeting activin pathway potentially provide effective strategy for colorectal cancer therapy.
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