TY - JOUR AB - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer‑associated mortality worldwide; therefore, there is an emerging need for novel experimental models that allow for the identification and validation of biomarkers for CRC‑specific progression. In the present study, a repeated sphere‑forming assay was used as a strategy to select a malignant subpopulation from a CRC cell line, namely HCT116. The assay was validated by confirming that canonical stemness markers were upregulated in the sphere state at every generation of the selection assay. The resulting subpopulation, after eight rounds of selection, exhibited increased sphere‑forming capacity in vitro and increased tumorigenicity in vivo. Furthermore, dipeptidase 1 (DPEP1) was identified as the major differentially expressed gene in the selected clone, and its depletion suppressed the elevated sphere‑forming capacity in vitro and tumorigenicity in vivo. Overall, the present study established an experimental strategy to isolate a malignant subpopulation from a CRC cell line. Additionally, results from the present model revealed that DPEP1 may serve as a promising prognostic biomarker for CRC. AD - Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan, R.O.C. Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan, R.O.C. AU - Lai,Pei‑Lun AU - Chen,Ting‑Chun AU - Feng,Chun‑Yen AU - Lin,Hsuan AU - Ng,Chi‑Hou AU - Chen,Yun AU - Hsiao,Michael AU - Lu,Jean AU - Huang,Hsiao‑Chun DA - 2020/09/01 DO - 10.3892/ol.2020.11829 EP - 2945 IS - 3 JO - Oncol Lett KW - cell line colorectal cancer DPEP1 malignant subpopulation sphere‑forming PY - 2020 SN - 1792-1074 1792-1082 SP - 2937 ST - Selection of a malignant subpopulation from a colorectal cancer cell line T2 - Oncology Letters TI - Selection of a malignant subpopulation from a colorectal cancer cell line UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2020.11829 VL - 20 ER -