肿瘤干细胞与肿瘤转移的分子影像学检测及研究进展

Progress in molecular imaging detection of cancer stem cells and cancer metastasis

肿瘤干细胞(cancer stem cells,CSCs)是一类具有自我更新及多向分化潜能的癌细胞亚群。一些研究表明,CSCs参与并调节了肿瘤的转移过程,为转移发生的微环境建立提供了条件。因此,对CSCs的识别和示踪在研究肿瘤转移的分子机制方面显得尤为重要。近年来发展起来的分子影像技术,以CSCs表面特有的生物标志物为靶点,应用不同的显像手段,为揭示CSCs在肿瘤进展中的生物学行为和潜在分子机制提供了可视化依据。因此,本文就转移干细胞的定义、转移相关的CSCs表面标志物、分子影像技术在CSCs检测中的应用、CSCs相关的转移微环境以及干细胞导向的肿瘤治疗等方面作一综述。

Cancer stem cells （CSCs） are defined as an important subset of tumor cells that possess the predominant abilities of self-renewal and multi- differentiation. The growing evidence has shown that CSCs mediate the progression of tumor metastasis, and play an essential role in the establishment of tumor microenvironment. Thus, it is extremely important to find out a way of tracking and identifying CSCs for making further studies on the molecular mechanisms of cancer metastasis. Recently, labelling by the CSC-specific biomarkers as the targets, the emerging technology of the molecular imaging with different imaging strategies can reveal the biological behaviors of CSCs in the progression of cancer, and provide the visual basis for the potential mechanisms. In this review, the definition of metastatic stem cells, the metastasis- related biomarkers of CSCs, the application of molecular imaging in the detection of CSCs, the metastatic microenvironment influenced by CSCs, and the CSCs-oriented tumor therapy are discussed.