An assay for cancer stem cell-induced angiogenesis on chick chorioallantoic membrane.

Angiogenesis is generally involved in tumor growth and metastasis. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered to facilitate the angiogenesis. Therefore, CSCs could be the effective targets to stop angiogenesis. Recently, our group successfully generated CSC models from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in the presence of conditioned medium derived from cancer derived cells. These novel model CSCs has been characterized by highly tumorigenic, angiogenic and metastatic potentials in vivo. The angiogenic potential of CSCs has been explained by the expression of both angiogenic factors and their receptors implying the angiogenesis in autocrine manner. In this protocol we optimized the method to evaluate tumor angiogenesis with the CSC model, which was described effective to assess sorafenib as an antiangiogenic drug, on chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. Our results demonstrate that CSCs developed from iPSCs and CAM assay are a robust and cost-effective tool to evaluate tumor angiogenesis with CSCs. Collectively, CSCs in CAM assay could serve as a very useful model for the screening of potential therapeutic agents targeting tumor angiogenesis.