In Vitro Identification and Characterization of CD133pos Cancer Stem-Like Cells in Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma Cell Lines

Abstract

We describe CD133(pos) cells in ATC cell lines. ARO/CD133(pos) cells exhibit stem cell-like features--such as high proliferation, self-renewal ability, expression of OCT-4--and are characterized by higher resistance to chemotherapy. The simultaneous positivity for thyroid specific factor TTF-1 and onfFN suggest they might represent putative thyroid cancer stem-like cells. Our in vitro findings might provide new insights for novel therapeutic approaches.