Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

Arsenic Exposure Transforms Human Epithelial Stem/Progenitor Cells into a Cancer Stem-like Phenotype

2009; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Volume: 118; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1289/ehp.0901059

ISSN

1552-9924

Autores

Erik J. Tokar, Bhalchandra A. Diwan, Michael P. Waalkes,

Tópico(s)

Epigenetics and DNA Methylation

Resumo

Inorganic arsenic is a ubiquitous environmental carcinogen affecting millions of people worldwide. Evolving theory predicts that normal stem cells (NSCs) are transformed into cancer stem cells (CSCs) that then drive oncogenesis. In humans, arsenic is carcinogenic in the urogenital system (UGS), including the bladder and potentially the prostate, whereas in mice arsenic induces multi-organ UGS cancers, indicating that UGS NSCs may represent targets for carcino-genic initiation. However, proof of emergence of CSCs induced by arsenic in a stem cell population is not available.

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