Sign up for Table of Contents Alerts.
Email this page
Print this page
Report
Effects of Low Confluency, Serum Starvation and Hypoxia on the Side Population of Cancer Cell Lines
Raluca T. Tavaluc, Lori S. Hart, David T. Dicker and Wafik S. El-Deiry
volume 6 | issue 20
15 October 2007Pages: 2554 - 2562
Subscribe to this journal for $129/year
The cancer stem cell theory describes a small subset of cancer cells that have the ability to initiate and drive the growth of a tumor. The niche refers to the environmental factors and the surrounding cells within which the tumor develops. The exact relationship between cancer stem cells and the tumor niche is not known. However, using side population analysis by flow cytometry, it is possible to analyze the relationship between environmental stresses and putative cancer stem cells. The side population is a subpopulation of cells that efflux Hoechst 33342 and has been previously shown to be enriched for cancer stem cells. Using this technique, we characterized the response of side population cells to low confluency, serum starvation and hypoxia using three different human cancer cell lines. We found that these stresses, characteristic of the tumor niche enrich the side population of DLD1, SW480 and MCF7 cancer cell lines, thus possibly predisposing the tumor to a more malignant phenotype.
Authors
Raluca T. Tavaluc
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Philadelphia, PA
Lori S. Hart
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Philadelphia, PA
David T. Dicker
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Philadelphia, PA
Wafik S. El-Deiry
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Philadelphia, PA