Common stemness regulators of embryonic and cancer stem cells

Table 1 Biomarkers of pluripotency in mouse and human embryonic stem cells

Biomarker	Role in mESC	Role in hESC
Oct4	Pluripotency[200]	Pluripotency[4]
Sox2	Pluripotency[215]	Pluripotency[4]
Nanog	Pluripotency[227]	Pluripotency[4]
Klf4	Pluripotency[253,255]	Pluripotency[253]
c-Myc	Pluripotency[190]	Pluripotency[190]
SSEA1/CD15	Pluripotency[18,19]	Not expressed
SSEA 3, 4	Not expressed	Pluripotency[20,22]
TRA-1-68	Not expressed	Pluripotency[24]
TRA-1-81	Not expressed	Pluripotency[24]
Cripto-1	Pluripotency[28,474]	Pluripotency[28,474]

hESC: Human embryonic stem cell; mESCs: Mouse embryonic stem cells; SSEA: Stage specific embryonic antigens; TRA: Tumor rejection antigens.

Table 2 Biomarkers of cancer stem cells

Cancer type	Biomarkers
Breast	CD44[32,33] ALDH[31,35] EpCAM[30] CD13[35] A6-integrin[35] CD61[35] CD29[35] CD49[35] ABCG2[43,44] Nanog[204] Klf4[263,264]
Brain	CD133[39] Nestin[42] Sox2[42] Musashi-1[42] Bmi-1[42] ABCB1[48] ABCG2[48] ABCC1[48] SSEA1[45] Nanog[236] Sox2[42,225] Klf4[269]
Colorectal	CD133[49] EpCAM[50,51] CD166[51] CD24[51] CD29[51] Lgr5[56] Klf4[266]
Pancreatic	CD44[57] CD24[57] EpCAM[57] c-Met[58] CD133[59] CXCR4[59,60] Sox2[221]
Prostate	CD44[61] CD133[61] ALDH1A1[61] ABCG2[61] A2β1[61] Sox2[61]
Ovarian	CD133[62] CD44[62] CD24[62] EpCAM[62] ALDH1[62] CD117[62] c-kit[62] CD117[63] MyD88[35] Lin28[35] Oct4[35] Nanog[232,238] Sox2[219]
Melanoma	CD20[64] CD133[64] ABCG2[64] ABCB5[64] CD133[64] CD166[64] CD271[66] CXCR6[67] Oct4[68] Sox2[224]
Lung	CD133[69] CD24[35] CD34[35] CD44[35] CD87[35] ALDH1[35] ABCG2[70] Bmi-1[71] Nanog[234] Sox2[223]
Hepatocellular	CD133[72] EpCAM[74] CD90[74] CD44[74] CC13[74] ALDH1[74] ABCG2[74] CD117[74] AFP[74]
Head and neck (HNSCC)	CD44[75] CD133[76] ABCG2[76,77] ALDH1[77] c-Met[77] Bmi-1[77] Lgr5[77]

Table 3 Common signaling pathways, transcription factors, non-coding RNAs and epigenetic regulators of embryonic stem cells and cancer stem cells in solid tumors

	ESCs	CSC type
Signaling pathways
Wnt/β-catenin	Self-renewal in mESCs/hESCs[91] Differentiation in hESCs[98]	Brain[104] Breast[103] Colon[99] Lung[475] Prostate[476]
Hedgehog	Self-renewal in mESCs[109] Differentiation in hESCs[108]	Brain[112] Breast[111] Pancreas[115]
Notch	Differentiation in mESCs and hESCs[117]	Brain[126] Breast[128] Colon[125] Pancreas[123]
TGF-β	Activin/Nodal promote self-renewal in mESCs and hESCs[134,135] BMP promotes self-renewal in mESCs[138] and differentiation in hESCs[141]	Brain[158] Breast[157] Skin[133]
FGF	Differentiation in mESCs[164] Self-renewal in hESCs[169]	Bladder[477] Brain[177] Breast[178]
Transcription factors
4-Oct	Self-renewal and pluripotency[198]	Breast[207,210] Lung[70,207] Oral[208] Prostate[209] Cervical[211] Head and neck[212]
Sox2	Self-renewal and pluripotency[215]	Osteosarcoma[218] Ovarian[219] Gastric[220] Pancreatic[221] Prostate[222] Lung[223] Melanoma[224]
Nanog	Self-renewal and pluripotency[226-228]	Breast[250] Oral[208] Lung[234] Colorectal[238,241] Prostate[242] Ovarian[251]
Klf4	Self-renewal and pluripotency[254,256]	Breast[263-265,268] Colorectal[266,267] Pancreatic[267] Brain[269]
c-Myc	Self-renewal and pluripotency[189,191,270]	Brain[283] Lung[284] Rhabdomyosarcoma[285] Prostate[286] Hepatic[287]
DNA methylation regulators
DNMT1	Differentiation[293]	Colon[336] Breast[338]
TET2	Differentiation[315,322]	Breast[344]
Chromatin modifications regulators
EZH2	Self-renewal and pluripotency[186]	Breast[393] Pancreas[393] Brain[395] Prostate[396] Bone[397]
BMI-1	Self-renewal and pluripotency[186]	Prostate[400] Esophageal[401] Head and neck[402] Cervical[403] Colorectal[404] Laryngeal[405] Ovarian[406] Salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma[399]
Suz12	Self-renewal and pluripotency[186]	Breast[407] Colon[408]
MLL1	Self-renewal and pluripotency[186]	Brain[409]
MicroRNAs
Let-7	Differentiation[430,431]	Breast[434] Prostate[448]
MiR-200 family	Differentiation[267]	Breast[437]
MiR-34a	Differentiation[429]	Brain[444] Prostate[448] Pancreatic[451] Gastric[450] Colon[452]
MiR-145	Differentiation[424]	Brain[445] Breast[440]
Long non-coding RNAs
LncRNA-RoR	Self-renewal[418]	Breast[461]

CSC: Cancer stem cell; ESCs: Embryonic stem cells; mESCs: Mouse ESCs; hESCs: Human ESCs.