CD133+ cancer stem-like cells promote migration and invasion of salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma by inducing vasculogenic mimicry formation

// Sha-sha Wang 1 , Xiao-lei Gao 1 , Xin Liu 1 , Shi-yu Gao 1 , Yun-long Fan 1 , Ya-ping Jiang 1 , Xiang-rui Ma 1 , Jian Jiang 1 , Hao Feng 1 , Qian-ming Chen 1 , Ya-jie Tang 3 , Ya-ling Tang 1, 2 , Xin-hua Liang 1, 4 1 State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases West China Hospital of Stomatology (Sichuan University), Chengdu Sichuan 610041, People’s Republic of China 2 Department of Oral Pathology, West China Hospital of Stomatology (Sichuan University), Chengdu Sichuan 610041, People’s Republic of China 3 Key Laboratory of Fermentation Engineering (Ministry of Education), Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, People’s Republic of China 4 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China Hospital of Stomatology (Sichuan University), Chengdu Sichuan 610041, People’s Republic of China Correspondence to: Xin-hua Liang, e-mail: lxh88866@scu.edu.cn , drliangxinhua@aliyun.com Ya-ling Tang, e-mail: tangyaling@scu.edu.cn Keywords: adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), salivary gland, invasion, metastasis, vasculogenic mimicry (VM) Received: November 02, 2015 Accepted: March 28, 2016 Published: April 09, 2016 ABSTRACT Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have gained much attention due to their roles in the invasion and metastasis of numerous kinds of human cancers. Here, we showed that the positive expression of CD133, the stemness marker, was positively associated with vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation, local regional recurrence, distant metastasis and poorer prognosis in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) specimens. Compared with CD133 – ACC cells, CD133 + cancer stem-like cells had more migration and invasion capabilities, as well as more VM formation. The levels of endothelial cell marker VE-cadherin, MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression in CD133 + cancer stem-like cells and xenograft tumors of nude mice injected with CD133 + cells were significantly higher than those with CD133 – cells. The data indicated that CD133 + cancer stem-like cells might contribute to the migration and invasion of ACC through inducing VM formation.