However, glucose metabolism is poorly understood in hepato-cellular cancer or cancer stem cells. This study was designed to explore the effect and mechanism of glucose metabolism in hepatocellular cancer stem cells. We isolated CD133(+) cancer stem cell populations from human hepatocellular cancer cell line PLC/PRF/5; the cancer stem cell properties were assessed by the spheroid formation ability and the expression of several stem cell markers including CD44, EpCAM, OCT4

and KLF4. We observed that the CD133(+) cell population showed a significantly higher expression level of glycolytic enzymes such as Glut1, HK1, PGAM1 and PDK4 compared to CD133(-) cells. In contrast, expression www.selleckchem.com/products/Deforolimus.html of gluconeogenetic enzymes (G6Pase, Pepck) were significantly lower in the CD133(+) population. Extracellular acidification rate (ECAR), which is an indication of lactic acid production from glycolysis, was significantly higher in CD133(+) cells compared to CD133(-) cells. Noticeably, the percentage of CD133(+) population significantly declined under low glucose conditions, whereas it was preserved under high glucose conditions. Mechanistically, we observed that the levels of miR-122 were significantly decreased in CD133(+) cells compared to CD133(-) cells, while forced overexpression of miR-122

decreased ECAR and reduced spheroid formation in CD133(+) cells. Our data suggest that PDK4 is a direct target of miR-122, as evidenced by the fact that transfection of miR 122 mimic markedly reduced both mRNA and protein levels of PDK4. PDK4 check details and LDHA knockdown in CD133(+) cells resulted in significantly reduction of stemness genes expression and spheroid formation. Treatment of dichloroacetate (DCA), which find more is PDK inhibitor, also significantly inhibited spheroid formation in CD133(+) cells. Furthermore, combining DCA with sorafenib synergistically inhibited the growth of CD133(+) cells. Taken together, these results suggest that enhanced glycolysis is associated with CD133(+) stem-like characters and that targeting glycolysis

through miR-122 or PDK4 may represent a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of hepatocellular cancer. Disclosures: The following people have nothing to disclose: Kyoungsub Song, Hyunjoo Kwon, Chang Han, Srikanta Dash, Tong Wu End-stage liver disease is a major cause of mortality in the United States. Currently, liver transplantation is the only effective therapy for end-stage liver disease. An attractive therapeutic alternative is hepatocyte cell transplantation. Realizing that therapeutic potential requires understanding how hepatocyte turnover is maintained and regulated. In many tissues, the Wnt family of proteins plays a key role in regulating homeostasis by serving as niche signals to maintain tissue stem cells. We have identified a unique and novel population of hepatocytes in the liver that act as stem cells.