Purpose: In the present study, we made an attempt to elucidate the role of oversecretion of interleukin-4 (IL-4) in cancer stem cells (CSCs) of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).
Methods: HNSCC samples were analyzed for the presence of CSCs by flow cytometry. In addition, we have performed drug and apoptosis resistance assays to determine the role of IL-4 in CSCs.
Results: HNSCC samples contained 3.3% of CD133+ cancer stem like side population (SP) cells in HNSCC which displayed infinite cell proliferation and they had high self-renewal capacity. These CD133+ cells displayed enhanced expression of IL-4, which promoted multidrug and apoptosis resistance. After neutralizing IL-4, the CD133+ SP cells became more sensitive to drug treatment and apoptosis.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that the autocrine secretion of IL-4 is a potential target for the development of novel anticancer drugs to prevent the CSCs-mediated therapy failure and tumorigenesis.