Abstract
Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the human malignant tumors with a high recurrence rate and the poorest prognosis. Therefore, a new treatment strategy is required. It has also come to be thought that cancer is a heterogeneous, which composes of cancer stem cells (CSCs), which have self-renewal ability, multipotency and treatment resistance. Although various strategies targeting glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) have been studied, a median survival remains to be less than 2 years. In this study, we focused on strategies targeting GSCs through induction of differentiation using BMP4. We examined the expression of CD133, a cancer stem cell marker, under BMP4-treatment in GSCs using flowcytometry analysis, western blotting and qPCR. We also examined immunofluorescent staining of GSCs to study cell division. The treatment of BMP4 caused downregulation of CD133 expression in GSCs. In addition, BMP4-treatment induced to asymmetric cell division in GSCs. Tumor sphere assay showed that BMP4 suppresses self-renewal ability. These findings may provide a new perspective how BMP4 reduces the tumorigenicity of GSCs.