Cancer stem cells in colorectal cancer from pathogenesis to therapy: Controversies and perspectives

Table 1 Cell surface and intracellular molecules suggested as putative cancer stem cell markers in colorectal cancer and their most important features

Marker	Other name	Gene location1	Function	Ref.
CD133	Prominin-1, AC133	Chr 4 (p15.32)	Encoding of a pentaspan transmembrane glycoprotein which binds cholesterol in cholesterol-containing plasma membrane microdomains	[22]
CD44	PGP-1, HUTCH-1, GP90, EPICAN, CDW44, MIC4	Chr 11 (p13)	Cell adhesion molecule; involved in lymph node homing and lymphocyte activation	[55,56]
EpCAM	ESA, CD326, MK- 1, KSA, HEA125, BerEp4, 17-1A, GA733-2, KS1/4, EGP-2, EGP34, TROP-1	Chr 2 (p21)	Epithelial cell adhesion molecule	[70]
CD24	HSA	Chr 6 (q21)	Mucin-like cell adhesion molecule	[76]
CD29	Β1 Integrin	Chr 10 (p11.2)	Receptor for extracellular matrix proteins; involved in regulation of cell migration, proliferation, survival, differentiation and death	[82]
Lgr5	GPR49	Chr 12 (q22-q23)	Receptor for R-spondin proteins; marker for adult stem cells	[89,90]
CD166	ALCAM	Chr 3 (q13.1)	Cell adhesion molecule	[96]

¹From http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene.