SummaryHuman embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can be maintained in a fully defined niche on extracellular matrix substrates, to which they attach through integrin receptors. However, the underlying integrin signaling mechanisms, and their contribution to hESC behavior, are largely unknown. Here, we show that focal adhesion kinase (FAK) transduces integrin activation and supports hESC survival, substrate adhesion, and maintenance of the undifferentiated state. After inhibiting FAK kinase activity we show that hESCs undergo cell detachment-dependent apoptosis or differentiation. We also report deactivation of FAK downstream targets, AKT and MDM2, and upregulation of p53, all key players in hESC regulatory networks. Loss of integrin activity or FAK also induces cell aggregation, revealing a role in the cell-cell interactions of hESCs. This study provides insight into the integrin signaling cascade activated in hESCs and reveals in FAK a key player in the maintenance of hESC survival and undifferentiated state.

Background: Interaction of stem cells with extracellular matrix (ECM) controls their fate.Results: MS reveals interacting ECM networks produced by human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and their feeders; supportive and unsupportive hESC substrates comprise distinct ECM compositions.Conclusion: Several ECM molecules maintain hESC self-renewal.Significance: Better understanding of hESC self-renewal has applications in understanding development, generating cell therapies, and modeling diseases.

Thymoquinone (TQ) is the active ingredient of Nigella sativa which has a therapeutic potential in cancer therapy and prevention. In this study, TQ has been shown to induce specific cytotoxicity and apoptosis and to inhibit wound healing in triple-negative breast cancer cell line. TQ also inhibited cancer growth in a mouse tumor model. Moreover, TQ and paclitaxel (Pac) combination inhibited cancer growth in cell culture and in mice. Genes involved in TQ and TQ-Pac-mediated cytotoxicity were studied using focused real-time PCR arrays. After bioinformatic analysis, genes in apoptosis, cytokine, and p53 signaling categories were found to be modulated with a high significance in TQ-treated cells (p < 10(-28), p < 10(-8), and p < 10(-6), respectively). Important to note, TQ has been found to regulate the genes involved in the induction of apoptosis through death receptors (p = 5.5 × 10(-5)). Additionally, tumor suppressor genes such as p21, Brca1, and Hic1 were highly upregulated by TQ and TQ-Pac combination. Interestingly, when cells were treated with high dose TQ, several growth factors such as Vegf and Egf were upregulated and several pro-apoptotic factors such as caspases were downregulated possibly pointing out key pathways manipulated by cancer cells to resist against TQ. In cells treated with the combination of TQ and Pac, genes in apoptosis cascade (p < 10(-12)), p53 signaling (p = 10(-5)), and JAK-STAT signaling (p < 10(-3)) were differentially expressed. TQ has also been shown to induce protein levels of cleaved Caspase-3, Caspase-7, and Caspase-12 and PARP and to reduce phosphorylated p65 and Akt1. The in vivo therapeutic potential of TQ-Pac combination and the genetic network involved in this synergy have been shown for the first time to the best of our knowledge.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a prominent role in cancer progression and metastasis. Inhibition of EMT-associated regulators may hold a huge promise for cancer therapy. Although TGF-β signalling has a pivotal role in the induction of EMT, alterations during the EMT process are usually initiated and controlled by the cross-talk of multiple signalling pathways, and in most cases this is context-dependent. In the present study, we aimed at identifying the molecular mechanisms during the inhibition of EMT by novel anti-cancer agent myrtucommulone-A (MC-A) and thymoquinone (TQ). We used epithelial cancer cells to study the effects of MC-A and TQ on EMT. We first showed the functional inhibition of EMT by MC-A or TQ using migration assays and confirmed the EMT inhibition by analysing the expression of EMT markers with RT-PCR, immunocytochemistry and Western blotting. We evaluated the changes in intracellular dynamics by Western blotting and compared the effects of MC-A and TQ with the effects of selective inhibitors of PI3K (LY294002), ERK 1/2 (U0126) and TGF-βR (SB431542). We demonstrate that both MC-A and TQ treatment negatively regulate the EMT process through modulation of signalling pathways in cancer cells. MC-A and TQ treatment inhibited phosphorylation of multiple proteins in a context-dependent manner. Novel anti-cancer agent MC-A and TQ regulate distinct signalling pathways for the repression of EMT which emphasises the significance of combinational therapies in cancer treatment. MC-A and TQ could be considered as candidate molecules for combinational therapies with their ability to interfere signalling pathways regulating cancer cell behaviour.

Mounting evidence suggests that signalling cross-talk plays a significant role in the regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer cells. However, the complex network regulating the EMT in different cancer types has not been fully described yet which affects the development of novel therapeutic strategies. In the present study, we investigated the signalling pathways involved in EMT of bladder cancer cells and demonstrated the effects of two novel agents in the regulation of EMT. Myrtucommulone-A (MC-A) and thymoquinone (TQ) have been shown to possess anti-cancer properties. However, their targets in the regulation of cancer cell behavior are not well defined. Here, we defined the effects of two putative anti-cancer agents on bladder cancer cell migration and their possible intracellular targets in the regulation of EMT. Our results suggest that MC-A or TQ treatment affected N-cadherin, Snail, Slug, and β-catenin expressions and effectively attenuated mTOR activity. The downstream components in mTOR signalling were also affected. MC-A treatment resulted in the concomitant inhibition of extracellular matrix-regulated protein kinases 1 and 2 (ERK 1/2), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and Src activity. On the other hand, TQ treatment increased Src activity while exerting no effect on ERK 1/2 or p38 MAPK activity. Given the stronger inhibition of EMT-related markers in MC-A-treated samples, we concluded that this effect might be due to collective inhibition of multiple signalling pathways which result in a decrease in their cross-talk in bladder cancer cells. Overall, the data in this study proposes novel action mechanisms for MC-A or TQ in bladder cancer cells and highlights the potential use of these active compounds in the regulation of EMT.

We have generated a human feeder cell line from early second trimester Placental Stromal Fibroblasts (ihPSF) stably over-expressing the polycomb protein BMI-1. These feeder cells retain the ability to maintain human Embryonic Stem cells (hESc) over long-term culture whereas hTERT or BMI-1/hTERT immortalised feeder cell lines do not. ihPSFs were able to support the derivation of a new hESc line in near xenofree (free of non-human animal components) conditions and support continued culture of newly derived hESc and human induced Pluripotent Stem (hiPS) cell lines in complete xenofree conditions necessary for clinical use.

Cancer and stem cells exhibit similar features, including self-renewal, differentiation and immortality. The expression of stem-cell-related genes in cancer cells is demonstrated to be potentially correlated with cancer cell behaviour, affecting both drug response and tumor recurrence. There is an emerging body of evidence that subpopulations of tumors carry a distinct molecular sign and are selectively resistant to chemotherapy. Therefore, it is important to find novel therapeutic agents that could suppress the stem-like features of cancer cells while inhibiting their proliferation. Myrtucommulone-A (MC-A) is an active compound of a nonprenylated acylphloroglucinol isolated from the leaves of myrtle. Here we have investigated the potential of MC-A in inhibiting the expression of self-renewal regulatory factors and cancer stem cell markers in a bladder cancer cell line HTB-9. We used RT-PCR, immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry and western blotting to examine the expression of pluripotency- and multipotency-associated markers with or without treatment with MC-A. Treatment with MC-A not only decreased cancer cell viability and proliferation but also resulted in a decrease in the expression of pluripotency- and multipotency-associated markers such as NANOG, OCT-4, SOX-2, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60, CD90, CD73 and CD44. MC-A treatment was also observed to decrease the sphere-forming ability of HTB-9 cells. In summary, this study provides valuable information on the presence of stem-cell marker expression in HTB-9 cells and our results imply that MC-A could be utilized to target cancer cells with stem-like characteristics.

The induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology is the forced expression of specific transcription factors in somatic cells resulting in transformation into self-renewing, pluripotent cells which possess the ability to differentiate into any type of cells in the human body. While malignant cells could also be reprogrammed into iPSC-like cells with lower efficiency due to the genetic and epigenetic barriers in cancer cells, only a limited number of cancer cell types could be successfully reprogrammed until today. In the present study, we aimed at reprogramming two bladder cancer cell lines HTB-9 and T24 using a non-integrating Sendai virus (SeV) system. We have generated six sub-clones using distinct combinations of four factors-OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC-in two bladder cancer cell lines. Only a single sub-clone, T24 transduced with 4Fs, gave rise to iPSC-like cells. Bladder cancer cell-derived T24 4F cells represent unique features of pluripotent cells such as epithelial-like morphology, colony-forming ability, expression of pluripotency-associated markers and bearing the ability to differentiate in vitro. This is the first study focusing on the reprogramming susceptibility of two different bladder cancer cell lines to nuclear reprogramming. Further molecular characterisation of T24 4F cells could provide a better insight for biomarker research in bladder carcinogenesis and could offer a valuable tool for the development of novel therapeutic approaches in bladder carcinoma.