CD133 and ABCB5 as stem cell markers on sentinel lymph node from melanoma patients.

摘要

In the last years the nature of initiating melanoma cells has been discussed and the melanoma stem cell theory has been proposed as and alternative and/or supplemental view of newborning melanoma cells. It has been described that melanoma cells derived from metastatic melanoma specimens as well as melanoma cell lines are able to grow in an embryonic stem cell-based media and these melanoma stem-like cells possess capacity of self-renewal and high tumorigenicity. In 2005 the first evidence of a stem-cell like population existence in human melanoma has been provided. CD 133 or prominin-1 is one of most studied marker of staminality expressed by melanoma cells; specifically, the down regulation of CD 133 leads to a reduced cell capacity to metastatize.