The 'cancer stem cell' hypothesis has pointed to a specific target for new cancer therapies. The hypothesis is based on the observation that only the 'cancer stem cell' among the other heterogeneous cancer cells can sustain the growth of the cancer. The goal is to identify biomarkers of 'cancer stem cells' to distinguish them from the 'cancer non-stem cells' and normal adult tissue-specific stem cells. This analyst posits a hypothesis that, although all cancers originated from a single cell, there exist two types of 'cancer stem cells' either by the 'Stem Cell hypothesis' or from the 'De-differentiation hypothesis'. It is proposed that there exist two different 'cancer stem cells'. Some 'cancer stem cells' (a) lack the expression of connexins or gap junction genes and lack any form of gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) or (b) they have the expressed connexin-coded proteins for functional GJIC but are dysfunctional by some expressed oncogene. This is consistent with the Loewenstein hypothesis that a universal characteristic of cancer cells is they do not have growth control, nor terminally differentiate. This review speculates the normal organ-specific adult stem cell, that is 'initiated', is the origin of the 'cancer stem cells' with expressed Oct4A gene and no expressed connexin genes; whereas the other cancer stem cell has no expressed Oct4A genes but expressed connexin gene, whose coded protein is dysfunctional. Hence. both types of 'cancer stem cells' lack GJIC, for two different reasons, the selective therapies have to be different for these different cell types.

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关于癌症干细胞的潜在起源和特征。

“癌症干细胞”假说指出了新癌症疗法的特定目标。该假设基于以下观察：在其他异质癌细胞中，只有“癌症干细胞”才能维持癌症的生长。目标是确定“癌症干细胞”的生物标志物，以将它们与“癌症非干细胞”和正常成人组织特异性干细胞区分开来。这位分析师提出了一个假设，即尽管所有癌症都起源于单个细胞，但存在两种类型的“癌症干细胞”，一种是“干细胞假说”，另一种是“去分化假说”。有人提出存在两种不同的“癌症干细胞”。一些“癌症干细胞” (a) 缺乏连接蛋白或间隙连接基因的表达，并且缺乏任何形式的间隙连接细胞间通讯 (GJIC) 或 (b) 它们具有用于功能性 GJIC 的连接蛋白编码蛋白的表达，但由于某些表达的癌基因而功能失调。这与 Loewenstein 假设一致，即癌细胞的一个普遍特征是它们没有生长控制，也没有终末分化。本综述推测正常器官特异性成体干细胞，即“启动”，是表达Oct4A基因而无表达连接蛋白基因的“癌症干细胞”的起源；而另一个癌症干细胞没有表达Oct4A基因，但表达了连接蛋白基因，其编码蛋白功能失调。因此。由于两个不同的原因，两种类型的“癌症干细胞”都缺乏 GJIC，