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Here, we present a protocol to isolate apoptotic breast cancer cells by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and further detect the transition of breast non-stem cancer cells to breast cancer stem cell-like cells after apoptosis reversal by flow cytometry.
Cancer recurrence has long been studied by oncologists while the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Recently, we and others found that a phenomenon named apoptosis reversal leads to increased tumorigenicity in various cell models under different stimuli. Previous studies have been focused on tracking this process in vitro and in vivo; however, the isolation of real reversed cells has yet to be achieved, which limits our understanding on the consequences of apoptosis reversal. Here, we take advantage of a Caspase-3/7 Green Detection dye to label cells with activated caspases after apoptotic induction. Cells with positive signals are further sorted out by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) for recovery. Morphological examination under confocal microscopy helps confirm the apoptotic status before FACS. An increase in tumorigenicity can often be attributed to the elevation in the percentage of cancer stem cell (CSC)-like cells. Also, given the heterogeneity of breast cancer, identifying the origin of these CSC-like cells would be critical to cancer treatment. Thus, we prepare breast non-stem cancer cells before triggering apoptosis, isolating caspase-activated cells and performing the apoptosis reversal procedure. Flow cytometry analysis reveals that breast CSC-like cells re-appear in the reversed group, indicating breast CSC-like cells are transited from breast non-stem cancer cells during apoptosis reversal. In summary, this protocol includes the isolation of apoptotic breast cancer cells and detection of changes in CSC percentage in reversed cells by flow cytometry.
Cancer has been a leading cause of death, causing heavy burden to countries worldwide1. Breast cancer ranks high both in terms of incidence and mortality in female patients among all types of cancer1. Due to the cancer heterogeneity, a combination of drugs is usually used in chemotherapy to achieve cancer cell death2,3,4. However, since common chemotherapeutic drugs often target DNA5,6, protein synthesis7,8 and/o....
1. Preparation of Breast Non-stem Cancer Cells
In order to observe the transition from breast non-stem cancer cells to breast CSC-like cells, a first sorting of CD44-/CD24+ breast cancer cells were needed. For the MCF-7 cell line, which has around 0.15% cells with CSC markers in the original population (Figure 1), this step helped exclude the possibility of CSC enrichment during apoptosis reversal. On the contrary, if there were no cells with CSC markers in the original population, s.......
This protocol describes a direct and clear way for detecting the transition of breast non-stem cancer cells into breast CSC-like cells as a result of apoptosis reversal. Confirmation of the CSC properties of these reversed cells could be assisted by using in vitro mammosphere formation assay and in vivo xenograft transplantation in immunodeficient mice18,24,26,27,
The authors have nothing to disclose.
This work was supported by the Innovative Technology Fund of Innovation Technology Commission: Funding Support from the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology (CUHK), the Lo Kwee-Seong Biomedical Research Fund and the Lee Hysan Foundation. Y.X. was supported by the postgraduate studentship from the CUHK.
....Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
MCF-7 | American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) | HTB-22 | |
MDA-MB-231 | American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) | HTB-26 | |
T47D | American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) | HTB-133 | |
Reagent | |||
0.05% trypsin-EDTA | Invitrogen | 25300054 | |
0.25% trypsin-EDTA | Invitrogen | 25200072 | |
Alexa Fluor 680 annexin V conjugate | Invitrogen | A35109 | |
bovine serum albumin | USB | 9048-46-8 | |
CaCl2 · 2H2O | Sigma-Aldrich | C-5080 | |
CellEvent caspase-3/7 green fluorescent dye | Invitrogen | C10423 | |
dimethyl sulfoxide | Sigma-Aldrich | D2650 | |
Fc block | Miltenyi Biotec | 130-059-901 | |
fetal bovine serum | Invitrogen | 16000044 | heat-inactivated |
HEPES | USB | 16926 | |
Hoechst 33342 | Invitrogen | H3570 | |
L-glutamine | Invitrogen | 25030081 | |
Mitotracker Red CMXRos | Invitrogen | M7512 | |
monoclonal antibodies against human CD24 | BD Biosciences | 555428 | PE Clone:ML5 Lot:5049759 RRID:AB_395822 |
monoclonal antibodies against human CD44 | BD Biosciences | 560531 | PERCP-CY5.5 Clone:G44-26 Lot:7230770 RRID:AB_1727485 |
NaCl | Sigma-Aldrich | 31434 | |
paclitaxel | Sigma-Aldrich | T7402 | |
PE Mouse IgG2a, κ Isotype Control | BD Biosciences | 554648 | Clone:G155-178 (RUO) RRID:AB_395491 |
Penicillin-Streptomycin | Invitrogen | 15070-063 | |
PerCP-Cy5.5 Mouse IgG2b, κ Isotype Control | BD Biosciences | 558304 | Clone:27-35 RRID:AB_647257 |
phosphate buffered saline | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 21600010 | |
propidium iodide | Invitrogen | P1304MP | |
Roswell Park Memorial Institute 1640 medium | Invitrogen | 11835055 | phenol red-free |
sodium azide | Sigma-Aldrich | S2002 | |
staurosporine | Sigma-Aldrich | S4400 | |
Equipment | |||
100 mm culture dish | Greiner Bio-One | 664160 | |
12-well tissue culture plates | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 150628 | |
Cell Strainer 40-μm nylon mesh | BD Biosciences | 08-771-1 | |
FACSuite software bundle v1.0 | BD Biosciences | 651360 | |
FACSVerse | BD Biosciences | 651155 | |
FluoView FV1000 confocal microscope | Olympus | IX81 | 60X objective |
FV10-ASW Viewer software Ver.4.2b | Olympus | - | |
round-bottom polystyrene 12 × 75 mm tubes | BD Biosciences | 352003 | |
S3e sorter | Bio-Rad | 1451006 |
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