[Study of the invasiveness and tumour formation of Bcrp1(+) HeLa cervical cancer cells].

OBJECTIVE:To make sure whether or not Bcrp1 is the marker of cervical cancer stem cells or not by studying the invasive ability and formation of tumors of Bcrp1(+) phenotype HeLa cells. METHODS:The tumor cell migration and invasion assay were used by boyden chamber to identify the invasive ability of Bcrp1(+) phenotype HeLa cells. The formation of tumors in vivo experiments were completed, in which the two groups of cells with different concentrations were inoculated in non obese diabetes-severe combined immunodeficiency disease (NOD/SCID) mice (1×10(4), 1×10(5), 1×10(6)/ml), and the differences of time, rate and volume in the formation of tumors between two groups were observed. RESULTS:(1) In the invasion assay, the amount of cells that invaded through the artificial basement membrane in Bcrp1(+) group were 99 ± 14, which was significantly greater than those in Bcrp1(-) group (57 ± 13, P < 0.05);the length of the Bcrp1(+) group was (366 ± 52) µm, which was significantly greater than the Bcrp1(-) group (301 ± 54) µm (P < 0.05). (2) Following transplantation of 1×10(4) cells, only the Bcrp1(+) cells formed tumors in NOD/SCID mice. When 1×10(5) or 1×10(6) cells were transplanted, the tumor incidence and the tumor mass were greater in the Bcrp1(+) groups than those in the Bcrp1(-) groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION:Bcrp1(+) HeLa cell have the greater capacity of invasive and the tumorigenicity, which may contain cancer stem cells.