Quantitative PCR were analyzed in triplicate and the experiments were repeated for three times

are context-dependent opposing force in cancer. We found that Neuromedin N site ALDH1A1 silencing leads to diminished levels of both KLF4 and p21. Yu et al reported knockdown of KLF4 in breast cancer cells decreased the proportion of stem/progenitor cells as demonstrated by expression of stem cell surface markers ALDH. In this study, KLF4 knockdown in A2780/CP70 PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19674025 cells could lead to decreased expression of p21, but did not affect ALDH activity or ALDH1A1 expression, suggesting differential regulation of stem-cell pathways. This KLF4/p21 mediation has been well described in the literature with numerous publications demonstrating its ability to control chemoresistance. ALDH1A1 knockdown cells show reduced expression of p21 and cyclin-dependent kinase 4. CDK4 is one of the members of cyclin-dependent kinase family while p21 is a potent CDK inhibitor. Both p21 and CDK4 regulate cell cycle progression at G1 phase progression and ALDH1A1 silencing induces A2780/CP70′ cell-cycle arrest which is a more favorable phase for genotoxins induced cell death. Importantly, p21 and CDK4 levels were decreased with knockdown of ALDH1A1, and this was also associated with BAXmediated apoptosis, where a 4-fold increase in BAX levels was observed. Cancer stem cells may maintain their stem-ness by altered expression of cell cycle checkpoints such that they can become resistant to therapies due to their accumulation at particular cell cycle phase. In response to DNA damage, altered cell cycle and checkpoint signals also differentially PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1967325 regulate DNA repair networks. In our study, consistent with G1-phase accumulation, ALDH1A1 proficient cells exhibited increased expression of G1 checkpoint proteins KLF4/p21 and CDK4. Concomitant downregulation of ALDH1A1 exhibited increased accumulation of cells in S-phase but decreased S-phase checkpoint leading to DDR as evidenced by c-H2AX. Likewise, when KLF4 was transiently downregulated in these cells, decreased levels of p21 and CDK4 was observed. Further systematic evaluation of ALDH1A1/cell cycle axis is needed to confirm the platinum resistance and poor prognosis of ALDH1A1 positive ovarian cancers. Consistent with the altered cell cycle profiles and checkpoint proteins in ALDH1A1 cells, our studies also demonstrated differential expression of DNA repair network proteins. ALDH1A1 Maintains Stem-Like Properties by Altered DNA Repair Networks Although depletion of ALDH1A1 led to G1 checkpoint abrogation and increased S-phase accumulation of the cells, the replication checkpoint and replication stress associated DDR proteins FANCD2 and FANCJ were drastically diminished. Conversely, ALDH1A1 depletion in A2780/CP70 cells resulted in robust increase of BRACA1 protein in association with c-H2AX induction, demonstrating altered regulation of DNA damage response and repair networks in cancer stem-like cells. Collectively, these results indicate ALDH over-expression is associated with many properties of ovarian cancer stem-like cells such as enhanced invasion, colony formation, and chemoresistance. Our studies also demonstrated that ALDH1A1 plays a key role in maintenance of ovarian cancer stem-like cells’ properties and might mediate carboplatin resistance through altered regulation of cell cycle and DNA repair networks. These new findings offer an important tool for the study of ovarian CSCs and provide a potential prognostic factor and therapeutic target for treatment of patients with ovarian cancer. Despite the fact these results do not explai