ABSTRACT
Objective To obtain the lung adenocarcinoma initiating cells from the A 549 cell line based on paclitaxel treatment combination with serum-free cultivation and to validate spared cells can represent tumor initiating cells (TICs) .Methods After dis-sociated by trypsogen ,about 106 /mL cells were suspended in serum-free medium supplemented with 0 .4% bovine serum albumin (BSA) ,insulin ,basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) ,human recombinant epidermal growth factor (EGF) and obtained spheroid cells .At the second passage ,paclitaxel was added at a concentration of 100 nmol/L for 48 h and then replaced with completely fresh medium once or twice per week until new spheroids emerged .Results The subpopulation of cells that survived serum-free cultiva-tion and paclitaxel treatment could highly express the cluster of differentiation 133/cluster of differentiation (CD133/CD326) mo-lecular markers and have features of stemness including differentiation ,high expression of cancer stem cells (CSCs)-associated genes and stronger capability of tumorigenesis .Conclusion The survived subpopulation that highly express the CD 133/CD326 molecu-lar markers presenting the characteristics of stemness in vitro and in vivo ,and could be used in future researches of biological functions .