Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Oct 26, 2015; 7(9): 1150-1184
Published online Oct 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i9.1150
Common stemness regulators of embryonic and cancer stem cells
Christiana Hadjimichael, Konstantina Chanoumidou, Natalia Papadopoulou, Panagiota Arampatzi, Joseph Papamatheakis, Androniki Kretsovali
Christiana Hadjimichael, Department of Biology, University of Crete, 71409 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Christiana Hadjimichael, Konstantina Chanoumidou, Natalia Papadopoulou, Panagiota Arampatzi, Joseph Papamatheakis, Androniki Kretsovali, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), 70013 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Konstantina Chanoumidou, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Dragana, Alexandroupolis, 68100 Evros, Greece
Author contributions: Hadjimichael C, Chanoumidou K, Papadopoulou N, Arampatzi P, Papamatheakis J and Kretsovali A wrote parts of the review.
Supported by ESPA “Umbistem” 11ΣΥΝ_10_668.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Androniki Kretsovali, PhD, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), 100, Plastira Str., 70013 Heraklion, Crete, Greece. kretsova@imbb.forth.gr
Telephone: +30-2810-391191 Fax: +30-2810-391101
Received: February 3, 2015
Peer-review started: February 5, 2015
First decision: April 15, 2015
Revised: August 25, 2015
Accepted: October 1, 2015
Article in press: October 8, 2015
Published online: October 26, 2015
Processing time: 268 Days and 10.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Accumulating experimental evidence has revealed the existence of common stemness regulators for embryonic and cancer stem cells. In this review, we highlight current results on biomarkers, gene signatures, signaling pathways and epigenetic regulators that determine the phenotype of these two types of stem cells. We also discuss how this knowledge may promote the design of next generation biological and pharmaceutical tools for regenerative medicine and cancer therapies.