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Studying Pancreatic Cancer Stem Cell Characteristics for Developing New Treatment Strategies
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Integrin α6 (CD49f), The Microenvironment and Cancer Stem Cells
Gabriele D Bigoni-Ordóñez1,2, Daniel Czarnowski3, Tyler Parsons3
1Division de Investigacion Basica, Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia, Secretaria de Salud, Mexico City, Mexico.
Abstract:
Cancer is a highly prevalent and potentially terminal disease that affects millions of individuals worldwide. Here, we review the literature exploring the intricacies of stem cells bearing tumorigenic characteristics and collect evidence demonstrating the importance of integrin α6 (ITGA6, also known as CD49f) in cancer stem cell (CSC) activity. ITGA6 is commonly used to identify CSC populations in various tissues and plays an important role sustaining the self-renewal of CSCs by interconnecting them with the tumorigenic microenvironment.
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