General description

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 2nd highest cause of cancer death in the United States. Increasing evidence suggests that a small population of cancer-initiating cells (CICs) or cancer stem cells (CSCs) are responsible for tumorigenesis and the exceptional drug resistance to anti-cancer therapies.

CR4 is a novel CIC-enriched, highly tumorigenic, clonogenic and 3D spheroid-forming colon cancer cell line derived from the liver metastasis of a male patient with stage 4 colon cancer (1). Primary tumor cells were established on type I collagen coated flasks in serum-free stem cell media (1). Holoclones, small stem-like cells that are densely packed, were selectively subcloned from the heterogeneous culture and propagated. Cells were then passaged as 3D spheroids and in NOD/SCID mice xenografts leading to the eventual establishment of the CR4 human colorectal cancer cell line.
Majority of CR4 cells express high but variable levels of common cancer stem cell markers including CD44, CD166, EpCAM, and Lgr51. CR4 cell line has the G12V mutation on KRAS exon 2 (Botchkina GI, communications).

Reference:
1. Rowehl RA, Burke S, Bialkowska AB, Pettet DW III, Rowehl L, Li E, Antoniou E, Zhang Y, Bergamaschi R, Shroyer KR, Ojima I., Botchkina GI (2014) PLOS 9(6): e99091.

Other Notes

This product is intended for sale and sold solely to academic institutions for internal academic research use per the terms of the 'Academic Use Agreement' as detailed in the product documentation. For information regarding any other use, please contact [email protected].

Quality

Each vial contains ≥1X10⁶ viable cells.
Cells are tested negative for HPV-16, HPV-18, Hepatitis A, B, C, Herpesvirus type 7, 8 and HIV-1 & 2 viruses by PCR
Cells are positive for herpesvirus type 6 by PCR analysis.
Cells are negative for mycoplasma contamination.
Each lot of cells is genotyped by STR analysis to verify the unique identity of the cell line.