Exposure to arsenic can turn normal stem cells into cancer stem cells

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered how exposure to arsenic can turn normal stem cells into cancer stem cells and spur tumor growth. Inorganic arsenic, which affects the drinking water of millions of people worldwide, has been previously shown to be a human carcinogen. A growing body of evidence suggests that cancer is a stem-cell based disease. Normal stem cells are essential to normal tissue regeneration, and to the stability of organisms and processes. But cancer stem cells are thought to be the driving force for the formation, growth, and spread of tumors.

Michael Waalkes, Ph.D., and his team at the National Toxicology Program Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of NIH, had shown previously that normal cells become cancerous when they are treated with inorganic arsenic. This new study shows that when these cancer cells are placed near, but not in contact with normal stem cells, the normal stem cells very rapidly acquire the characteristics of cancer stem cells. It demonstrates that malignant cells are able to send molecular signals through a semi-permeable membrane, where cells cannot normally pass, and turn the normal stem cells into cancer stem cells.

“This paper shows a different and unique way that cancers can expand by recruiting nearby normal stem cells and creating an overabundance of cancer stem cells,” stated Waalkes. “The recruitment of normal stem cells into cancer stem cells could have broad implications for the carcinogenic process in general, including tumor growth and metastases.”

This reveals a potentially important aspect of arsenic carcinogenesis and may help explain observances by researchers working with arsenic that arsenic often causes multiple tumors of many types to form on the skin or inside the body. The paper is on-line in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Related News:

• Existing Breast Cancer Drugs May Help More Women
• Diabetes Drug Metformin May Fight Cancer
• Target Meeting’s 2nd World Cancer Online Conference Held On January 8-11, 2013: Join For Free
• Scientists Find Biomarker That Can Improve Breast Cancer Therapy
• Data shows association between increased weight and breast cancer survival varies by race/ethnicity
• Pancreatic Cancer Discovery Offers New Hope For Patients
• Epigenetic difference in twins explains different risk of breast cancer
• Sex Lives of Patients Probed to Fight Oral Cancer
• Superior Cancer Screening?
• Cancer research yields unexpected new way to produce nylon

Details :
Submited at Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 at 8:00 pm on Uncategorized by admin
Comment RSS 2.0 - leave a comment - trackback