Title : The adult stem cells and the cancer stem cells in the context of ovarian cancer
Abstract:
Based on the similarity, with Adult Stem Cells (ASCs), in the expression of markers like CD24, CD34, CD44, CD105, CD117, EpCam, ROR1, ALDH, SOX2, OCT4, etc. Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) have been identified in Ovarian Cancer too. It has been known with the research spanning more than a decade that CSCs arise by the multi-step genetic/epigenetic mutations in the ASCs, or their Multi-Potent Progenitors (MPPs), or (in some cases, like, for eg. the cancer of liver cells) the Mature Differentiated Cells (MDCs). Like ASCs CSCs have self-renewal capability, and like ASCs CSCs are rare. There has been a hypothesis that in the case of Ovarian Cancer CSCs arise from multi-step genetic/epigenetic mutations in the ASCs. In my talk I challenge this hypothesis. The ASCs of ovary comprise the Very Small Embryonic like Stem Cells (VSELs), and the Ovarian Stem Cells (OSCs). A certain study found that when the stem cells of the ovary were suspended in the medium of appropriate nutrient they give rise to either of the three primary germ layers: the ectoderm, the mesoderm and the endoderm. Hence it follows that the stem cells of ovary can give rise to all the MDCs of Ovary. Because ovary is a minuscule organ, it is not hard to predict that when there is stimulus to the ovary to mutate not only the stem cells mutate but even the MDCs of ovary. In my talk I hypothesize that CSCs in the case of Ovarian Cancer arise not only from the multi-step genetic/epigenetic mutations in the ASCs of ovary but also from the multi-step genetic/epigenetic mutations in the MDCs of ovary. I make an out-of-the-box conjecture on the mechanism by which the MDCs of Ovary transform into the CSCs.
