Refinement of an Established Procedure and Its Application for Identification of Hypoxia in Prostate Cancer Xenografts.
Cancers (Basel) 2021;
13:2602. [PMID:
34073301 PMCID:
PMC8198481 DOI:
10.3390/cancers13112602]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2021] [Revised: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 05/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
This pre-clinical study was designed to refine a dissection method for validating the use of a 15-gene hypoxia classifier, which was previously established for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients, to identify hypoxia in prostate cancer.
METHODS
PC3 and DU-145 adenocarcinoma cells, in vitro, were gassed with various oxygen concentrations (0-21%) for 24 h, followed by real-time PCR. Xenografts were established in vivo, and the mice were injected with the hypoxic markers [18F]-FAZA and pimonidazole. Subsequently, tumors were excised, frozen, cryo-sectioned, and analyzed using autoradiography ([18F]-FAZA) and immunohistochemistry (pimonidazole); the autoradiograms used as templates for laser capture microdissection of hypoxic and non-hypoxic areas, which were lysed, and real-time PCR was performed.
RESULTS
In vitro, all 15 genes were increasingly up-regulated as oxygen concentrations decreased. With the xenografts, all 15 genes were up-regulated in the hypoxic compared to non-hypoxic areas for both cell lines, although this effect was greater in the DU-145.
CONCLUSIONS
We have developed a combined autoradiographic/laser-guided microdissection method with broad applicability. Using this approach on fresh frozen tumor material, thereby minimizing the degree of RNA degradation, we showed that the 15-gene hypoxia gene classifier developed in HNSCC may be applicable for adenocarcinomas such as prostate cancer.
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