Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 6, 2026

Isolation and Characterization of a Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Subpopulation Having Stem Cell Characteristics
Published on: May 11, 2016
Induced Pluripotent-stem-cell Related Genes Contribute to De-differentiation in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Daisuke Takeda1, Takumi Hasegawa2, Takeshi Ueha3
1Departments of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
Background/Aim:
Cancer stem cells are suspected to contribute to malignancy in tumors. Hypoxia affects cell differentiation and induces stem-cell-like characteristics in malignancies. Induced pluripotency was demonstrated in mouse fibroblasts by reprogramming with four transcriptional factors: Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4. Conversely, oncogenic transformations frequently express transcriptional factors and Nanog. Therefore, cancer cells present some similarities with induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
Materials And Methods:
We investigated the expression of iPS-related genes in vitro and in clinical samples to identify their relationships with hypoxia and tumorigenesis.
Results:
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cells were used to show that expression levels of Oct3/4, Sox2, and Nanog were significantly increased in hypoxic condition in vitro and in moderately- and poorly-differentiated samples.
Conclusion:
We propose that Oct3/4, Sox2 and Nanog are associated with tumor hypoxia characterized in oral SCC and that these factors may also contribute to the undifferentiated potency observed in oral SCC clinically.
More Related Videos
10:15Conditional Reprogramming of Pediatric Human Esophageal Epithelial Cells for Use in Tissue Engineering and Disease Investigation
Published on: March 22, 2017
07:08Author Spotlight: Reprogramming Cancer Cells to iPSCs to Study Disease Progression and Treatment Targets
Published on: February 2, 2024
Related Concept Videos
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Somatic...
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
iPS Cell Differentiation
Somatic to iPS Cell Reprogramming
Stem Cell Culture
Forced Transdifferentiation
Artificial...