Gastric stem cells and gastric cancer stem cells

The gastric epithelium is continuously regenerated by gastric stem cells, which give rise to various kinds of daughter cells, including parietal cells, chief cells, surface mucous cells, mucous neck cells, and enteroendocrine cells. The self-renewal and differentiation of gastric stem cells need delicate regulation to maintain the normal physiology of the stomach. Recently, it was hypothesized that cancer stem cells drive the cancer growth and metastasis. In contrast to conventional clonal evolution hypothesis, only cancer stem cells can initiate tumor formation, self-renew, and differentiate into various kinds of daughter cells. Because gastric cancer can originate from gastric stem cells and their self-renewal mechanism can be used by gastric cancer stem cells, we review here how critical signaling pathways, including hedgehog, Wnt, Notch, epidermal growth factor, and bone morphogenetic protein signaling, may regulate the self-renewal and differentiation of gastric stem cells and gastric cancer stem cells. In addition, the precancerous change of the gastric epithelium and the status of isolating gastric cancer stem cells from patients are reviewed.