IN VITRO ASSAYS FOR ENRICHING AND DETERMINING THE CLONOGENIC POTENTIAL OF STEM CELLS

摘要

A method of enriching stem or progenitor cells that includes growing a heterogeneous cell sample comprising stem and/or progenitor cells on a first substrate that is hydrophobic and has an elastic modulus less than about 100 MPa; recovering the heterogeneous cell sample from the first substrate; growing the recovered heterogeneous cell sample on a second substrate that is hydrophilic and has an elastic modulus higher than the elastic modulus of the first substrate to produce a subpopulation of nonadherent cells and a subpopulation of adherent cells; and recovering the nonadherent cell subpopulation, which is enriched for stem and/or progenitor cells. The invention also relates to a method of determining the clonogenic potential of a cell, such as a cancer stem cell enriched using the enrichment method described herein.