TY - JOUR AB - Tumor cells from the same origin comprise different cell populations. Among them, cancer stem cells (CSCs) have higher tumorigenicity. It is necessary to enrich CSCs to determine an effective way to suppress and eliminate them. In the present study, using the non-adhesive culture system, tumor spheres were successfully generated from human A549 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line within 2 weeks. Compared to A549 adherent cells, sphere cells had a higher self-renewal ability and increased resistance to cytotoxic drugs. Sphere cells were more invasive and expressed stem cell markers including octamer‑binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4) and sex-determining region Y-box 2 (Sox2) at high levels. CD133, a disputed marker of lung CSCs, was also upregulated. Tumor sphere cells showed higher tumorigenic ability in vivo, indicating that more CSCs were enriched in the sphere cells. More blood vessels were formed in the tumor generated by sphere cells suggesting the interaction between CSCs and blood vessel. A reliable model of enriching CSCs from the human A549 NSCLC cell line was established that was simple and cost-effective compared to other methods. AD - The Engineering Research Center of Peptide Drug Discovery and Development, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, P.R. China AU - Zhao,Changhong AU - Setrerrahmane,Sarra AU - Xu,Hanmei DA - 2015/10/01 DO - 10.3892/or.2015.4163 EP - 2132 IS - 4 JO - Oncol Rep KW - cancer stem cells human non-small cell lung cancer non-adhesive culture isolation characterization PY - 2015 SN - 1021-335X 1791-2431 SP - 2126 ST - Enrichment and characterization of cancer stem cells from a human non-small cell lung cancer cell line T2 - Oncology Reports TI - Enrichment and characterization of cancer stem cells from a human non-small cell lung cancer cell line UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2015.4163 VL - 34 ER -