Influence of osteopontin expression on the metastatic growth of CC531 rat colorectal carcinoma cells in rat liver

Inhibition of cell proliferation, migration and colony formation of LS174T Cells by carbonic anhydrase inhibitor

Background

Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer deaths. Migration of tumor cells is an important stage in metastasis. Therefore, recent studies have focused on clarifying migration and migration-dependent cell functions such as angiogenesis, wound healing, and invasion.

Objectives

In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effect of acetazolamide, which is a classical carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, on the cell viability, migration, and colony forming capacity of human LS174T colorectal cancer cells.

Methods

Three different cell culture techniques (MTT test, wound healing and clonogenic assay) were performed in this in vitro study on colorectal cancer cells.

Results

Acetazolamide reduced the cell viability, migration and colony formation ability of cells depending on dose. There was no significant difference between the cells treated with acetazolamide with 1 µM dose and the control. However, it can be concluded that acetazolamide exerts its effect on human colorectal cancer cells at 10-1000 µM concentrations.

Conclusion

Acetazolamide was observed to significantly inhibit the cell viability, colony forming capacity, and migration ability in the culture medium of LS174T cells. This inhibitor effect of acetazolamide was observed to be dependent on the concentration in medium.

Investigation of Metastasis-Related Genes: A Rat Model Mimicking Liver Metastasis of Colorectal Carcinoma

Liver is the main target of colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis. Currently, the number of reports is small, which describe changes in gene expression supporting liver metastasis. Here, a rat model was used for analyzing mRNA modulations during liver colonization and compared with available literature. In the model, CC531 rat CRC cells were injected via a mesenteric vein into isogenic WAG/Rij rats and re-isolated at early, intermediate, advanced, and terminal stages of liver colonization. These cells were used for RNA isolation. Microarrays were used for analyzing mRNA profiles of expression. The number of deregulated genes is comparatively large and only part of it has been studied so far. As reported to date, claudins and insulin-like growth factor-binding proteins (IGFBPs) were found to be deregulated. The fact that the chosen method is efficient is confirmed by the study of claudins and IGFBPs, which show altered expression in the initial stages of liver colonization and then return to normalcy. In addition, cadherin was described to be downregulated in epithelial-mesenchymal transition models. It can, therefore, be concluded that the models used are helpful in finding genes, which are instrumental for metastatic liver colonization.

Few genes are associated with the capability of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells to grow in the liver of nude rats

Owing to aggressiveness and chemoresistance, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterised by a poor prognosis. To address this disease-spe-cific dilemma we aimed to establish animal models, which can be used for identifying new specific tumor markers, as well as serving as tools for potential therapeutic approaches. From a panel of sixteen pancreatic cancer cell lines, two human (Suit2-007 and Suit2-013) and a rat (ASML) cell line were selected for their properties to grow in the liver of male RNU rats and mimic liver metastasis of PDAC. For better monitoring of metastatic tumor growth in vivo, all three pancreatic cancer cell lines were stably transfected with eGFP and luciferase marker genes. In addition, the mRNA expression profile of 13 human PDAC cell lines was analyzed by BeadChip array analysis. Only 33 genes and 5 signaling pathways were identified as significantly associated with the ability of the cell lines to grow initially and/or consistently in rat liver. Only a minority of these genes (osteopontin, matrix metalloproteinase-1 and insulin-like growth factor 1) has been intensively studied and shown to be closely related to cancer progression. The function of the remaining 30 genes ranges from moderate to poorly investigated, and their function in cancer progression is still unclear. The ensuing three pancreatic cancer liver metastasis models vary in their aggressiveness and macroscopic growth. They will be used for preclinical evaluation of new therapeutic approaches aiming at the genes identified.