TY - JOUR
T1 - Cancer stem cells and cell size
T2 - A causal link?
AU - Li, Qiuhui
AU - Rycaj, Kiera
AU - Chen, Xin
AU - Tang, Dean G.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/12
Y1 - 2015/12
N2 - The majority of normal animal cells are 10-20. μm in diameter. Many signaling mechanisms, notably PI3K/Akt/mTOR, Myc, and Hippo pathways, tightly control and coordinate cell growth, cell size, cell division, and cell number during homeostasis. These regulatory mechanisms are frequently deregulated during tumorigenesis resulting in wide variations in cell sizes and increased proliferation in cancer cells. Here, we first review the evidence that primitive stem cells in adult tissues are quiescent and generally smaller than their differentiated progeny, suggesting a correlation between small cell sizes with the stemness. Conversely, increased cell size positively correlates with differentiation phenotypes. We then discuss cancer stem cells (CSCs) and present some evidence that correlates cell sizes with CSC activity. Overall, a causal link between CSCs and cell size is relatively weak and remains to be rigorously assessed. In the future, optimizing methods for isolating cells based on size should help elucidate the connection between cancer cell size and CSC characteristics.
AB - The majority of normal animal cells are 10-20. μm in diameter. Many signaling mechanisms, notably PI3K/Akt/mTOR, Myc, and Hippo pathways, tightly control and coordinate cell growth, cell size, cell division, and cell number during homeostasis. These regulatory mechanisms are frequently deregulated during tumorigenesis resulting in wide variations in cell sizes and increased proliferation in cancer cells. Here, we first review the evidence that primitive stem cells in adult tissues are quiescent and generally smaller than their differentiated progeny, suggesting a correlation between small cell sizes with the stemness. Conversely, increased cell size positively correlates with differentiation phenotypes. We then discuss cancer stem cells (CSCs) and present some evidence that correlates cell sizes with CSC activity. Overall, a causal link between CSCs and cell size is relatively weak and remains to be rigorously assessed. In the future, optimizing methods for isolating cells based on size should help elucidate the connection between cancer cell size and CSC characteristics.
KW - Cancer
KW - Cancer stem cells
KW - Cell size
KW - Stem cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84948657335&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84948657335&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.semcancer.2015.07.002
DO - 10.1016/j.semcancer.2015.07.002
M3 - Review article
C2 - 26241348
AN - SCOPUS:84948657335
SN - 1044-579X
VL - 35
SP - 191
EP - 199
JO - Seminars in cancer biology
JF - Seminars in cancer biology
ER -