Ewing's sarcoma cells with CD57‐associated increase of tumorigenicity and with neural crest‐like differentiation capacity

• Published in: International journal of cancer Vol. 127; no. 6; pp. 1295 - 1307
• Main Authors: Wahl, Joachim, Bogatyreva, Liubov, Boukamp, Petra, Rojewski, Markus, van Valen, Frans, Fiedler, Jörg, Hipp, Nora, Debatin, Klaus‐Michael, Beltinger, Christian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 15.09.2010; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; CD57; CD57 Antigens - physiology; Cell Differentiation; Culture Media, Serum-Free; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Ewing family of tumors; Flow Cytometry; heterogeneity; HNK‐1; Humans; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Knockout; Neural Crest - cytology; neural crest stem cells; Sarcoma, Ewing - immunology; Sarcoma, Ewing - pathology; Tumor Cells, Cultured; tumorigenicity; Tumors; Tumors of striated muscle and skeleton; Ewing sarcoma; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Neural stem cell; neural crest stem cells; Tumorigenicity; Malignant tumor; Cell differentiation; Neural crest; Heterogeneity; HNK-1; Cancerology; Ewing family of tumors; CD57; Cancer
• ISSN: 0020-7136; 1097-0215
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.25163

The Ewing family of tumors (EFT) is an important group of pediatric malignancies with a guarded prognosis. Little is known about the heterogeneity of EFT cells, and the cellular origin of EFT is disputed. We now add evidence that EFT are heterogeneous by showing that EFT cells from spheres growing in serum‐free medium are markedly more tumorigenic than adherently growing EFT cells. Furthermore, EFT cells strongly expressing CD57 (HNK‐1), a surface marker for migrating and proliferating neural crest cells, are more tumorigenic than cells with low expression of CD57, possibly mediated in part by enhanced adhesion and invasion. We contribute to the controversy about the cellular origin of EFT by clonal analysis, showing that EFT cells can differentiate similar to neural crest cells. These data increase our knowledge about the pathogenesis and heterogeneity of EFT.