Cancer stem cells in cell lines? - (Nov/06/2008 )

What is the consensus on using cell lines for cancer stem cell research?
Do leading labs use cell lines for initial studies or do they believe that cells from cell lines lack resemblance to cancer stem cells from primary sources?
Are cell lines cultured under less differentiation-inducing conditions (i.e. low FBS) more similar to primary cancer stem cells?

Any input will be greatly apprtaited.

Thank you.

OB

Many well known labs working on cancer stem cells use established cancer cell lines to isolate and study cancer stem cells. For example, in breast cancer system, people use cell lines such as MDAMB, MCF etc to isolate population with stem cell properties bases on cell surface markers(CD44high/24low) or dye effluxing Side population etc.