搜索结果: 'methocult media formulations for mouse hematopoietic cells serum containing'

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare inherited genomic instability syndrome representing one of the best examples of hematopoietic stem cell deficiency. Although FA might be an excellent candidate for bone marrow (BM) genetic correction ex vivo,knockout animal models are not sufficient to guide preclinical steps,and gene therapy attempts have proven disappointing so far. Contributing to these poor results is a characteristic and dramatic early BM-cells die-off when placed in culture. We show here that human primary FA BM cell survival can be ameliorated by using specific culture conditions that limit oxidative stress. When coupled with retrovirus-mediated transfer of the main complementation group FANCA-cDNA,we could achieve long-term reconstitution of the stem cell compartment both in vitro and in vivo. Gene-corrected BM cultures grew for textgreater120 days,and after cultured cell transplantation into NOD/SCID mice,clonogenic human cells carrying the FANCA transgene could be detected 6 months after transduction. By comparison,untransduced cells died in culture by 15 days. Of necessity for ethical reasons,experiments were conducted on a very limited number of primary BM cells. By using low cytokine regimen and conditions matching regulatory requirements,a contingent of gene-corrected cells slowly emerges with an unmet potential for in vivo engraftment. Future therapeutic applications of stem cells might be expanding from these data. In addition,we provide a model of gene-corrected human primary cell growth that carries the potential to better delineate the combined role of both DNA damage and oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of FA. View Publication

Metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) is incurable for most patients. Since mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) has been suggested as a crucial modulator of tumor biology,we aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of mTOR targeting for CRC therapy. To this purpose,we analyzed mTOR expression and the effect of mTOR inhibition in cancer stem-like cells isolated from three human metastatic CRCs (CoCSCs). CoCSCs exhibited a strong mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2) expression,and a rare expression of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1). This latter correlated with differentiation,being expressed in CoCSC-derived xenografts. We indicate Serum/glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) as the possible main mTORC2 effector in CoCSCs,as highlighted by the negative effect on cancer properties following its knockdown. mTOR inhibitors affected CoCSCs differently,resulting in proliferation,autophagy as well as apoptosis induction. The apoptosis-inducing mTOR inhibitor Torin-1 hindered growth,motility,invasion,and survival of CoCSCs in vitro,and suppressed tumor growth in vivo with a concomitant reduction in vessel formation. Torin-1 also affected the expression of markers for cell proliferation,angio-/lympho-genesis,and stemness in vivo,including Ki67,DLL1,DLL4,Notch,Lgr5,and CD44. Importantly,Torin-1 did not affect the survival of normal colon stem cells in vivo,suggesting its selectivity towards cancer cells. Thus,we propose Torin-1 as a powerful drug candidate for metastatic CRC therapy. View Publication

The enumeration of circulating tumor cells has long been regarded as an attractive diagnostic tool,as circulating tumor cells are thought to reflect aggressiveness of the tumor and may assist in therapeutic decisions in patients with solid malignancies. However,implementation of this assay into clinical routine has been cumbersome,as a validated test was not available until recently. Circulating tumor cells are rare events which can be detected specifically only by using a combination of surface and intracellular markers,and only recently a number of technical advances have made their reliable detection possible. Most of these new techniques rely on a combination of an enrichment and a detection step. This review addresses the assays that have been described so far in the literature,including the enrichment and detection steps and the markers used in these assays. We have focused on breast cancer as most clinical studies on CTC detection so far have been done in these patients. View Publication

Notch signaling has been demonstrated to have a central role in glioblastoma (GBM) cancer stem cells (CSCs) and we have demonstrated recently that Notch pathway blockade by γ-secretase inhibitor (GSI) depletes GBM CSCs and prevents tumor propagation both in vitro and in vivo. In order to understand the proteome alterations involved in this transformation,a dose-dependent quantitative mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic study has been performed based on the global proteome profiling and a target verification phase where both Immunoassay and a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) assay are employed. The selection of putative protein candidates for confirmation poses a challenge due to the large number of identifications from the discovery phase. A multilevel filtering strategy together with literature mining is adopted to transmit the most confident candidates along the pipeline. Our results indicate that treating GBM CSCs with GSI induces a phenotype transformation towards non-tumorigenic cells with decreased proliferation and increased differentiation,as well as elevated apoptosis. Suppressed glucose metabolism and attenuated NFR2-mediated oxidative stress response are also suggested from our data,possibly due to their crosstalk with Notch Signaling. Overall,this quantitative proteomic-based dose-dependent work complements our current understanding of the altered signaling events occurring upon the treatment of GSI in GBM CSCs. View Publication

The novel quinazoline derivative 4-(3'-bromo-4'-hydroxylphenyl)-amino-6,7-dimethoxyquinazoline (WHI-P154) exhibited significant cytotoxicity against U373 and U87 human glioblastoma cell lines,causing apoptotic cell death at micromolar concentrations. The in vitro antiglioblastoma activity of WHI-P154 was amplified textgreater 200-fold and rendered selective by conjugation to recombinant human epidermal growth factor (EGF). The EGF-P154 conjugate was able to bind to and enter target glioblastoma cells within 10-30 min via receptor (R)-mediated endocytosis by inducing internalization of the EGF-R molecules. In vitro treatment with EGF-P154 resulted in killing of glioblastoma cells at nanomolar concentrations with an IC50 of 813 +/- 139 nM,whereas no cytotoxicity against EGF-R-negative leukemia cells was observed,even at concentrations as high as 100 microM. The in vivo administration of EGF-P154 resulted in delayed tumor progression and improved tumor-free survival in a severe combined immunodeficient mouse glioblastoma xenograft model. Whereas none of the control mice remained alive tumor-free beyond 33 days (median tumor-free survival,19 days) and all control mice had tumors that rapidly progressed to reach an average size of textgreater 500 mm3 by 58 days,40% of mice treated for 10 consecutive days with 1 mg/kg/day EGF-P154 remained alive and free of detectable tumors for more than 58 days with a median tumor-free survival of 40 days. The tumors developing in the remaining 60% of the mice never reached a size textgreater 50 mm3. Thus,targeting WHI-P154 to the EGF-R may be useful in the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme. View Publication

Constitutive activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway in human cancers is often associated with mutational activation of BRAF or RAS. MAPK/ERK kinase 1/2 kinases lie downstream of RAS and BRAF and are the only acknowledged activators of ERK1/2,making them attractive targets for therapeutic intervention. AZD6244 (ARRY-142886) is a potent,selective,and ATP-uncompetitive inhibitor of MAPK/ERK kinase 1/2. In vitro cell viability inhibition screening of a tumor cell line panel found that lines harboring BRAF or RAS mutations were more likely to be sensitive to AZD6244. The in vivo mechanisms by which AZD6244 inhibits tumor growth were investigated. Chronic dosing with 25 mg/kg AZD6244 bd resulted in suppression of growth of Colo-205,Calu-6,and SW-620 xenografts,whereas an acute dose resulted in significant inhibition of ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Increased cleaved caspase-3,a marker of apoptosis,was detected in Colo-205 and Calu-6 but not in SW-620 tumors where a significant decrease in cell proliferation was detected. Chronic dosing of AZD6244 induced a morphologic change in SW-620 tumors to a more differentiated phenotype. The potential of AZD6244 in combination with cytotoxic drugs was evaluated in mice bearing SW-620 xenografts. Treatment with tolerated doses of AZD6244 and either irinotecan or docetaxel resulted in significantly enhanced antitumor efficacy relative to that of either agent alone. These results indicate that AZD6244 has potential to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis and differentiation,but the response varies between different xenografts. Moreover,enhanced antitumor efficacy can be obtained by combining AZD6244 with the cytotoxic drugs irinotecan or docetaxel. View Publication

Cell-to-cell virus transmission is one of the most efficient mechanisms of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spread,requires CD4 and coreceptor expression in target cells,and may also lead to syncytium formation and cell death. Here,we show that in addition to this classical coreceptor-mediated transmission,the contact between HIV-producing cells and primary CD4 T cells lacking the appropriate coreceptor induced the uptake of HIV particles by target cells in the absence of membrane fusion or productive HIV replication. HIV uptake by CD4 T cells required cellular contacts mediated by the binding of gp120 to CD4 and intact actin cytoskeleton. HIV antigens taken up by CD4 T cells were rapidly endocytosed to trypsin-resistant compartments inducing a partial disappearance of CD4 molecules from the cell surface. Once the cellular contact was stopped,captured HIV were released as infectious particles. Electron microscopy revealed that HIV particles attached to the surface of target cells and accumulated in large (0.5-1.0 microm) intracellular vesicles containing 1-14 virions,without any evidence for massive clathrin-mediated HIV endocytosis. The capture of HIV particles into trypsin-resistant compartments required the availability of the gp120 binding site of CD4 but was independent of the intracytoplasmic tail of CD4. In conclusion,we describe a novel mechanism of HIV transmission,activated by the contact of infected and uninfected primary CD4 T cells,by which HIV could exploit CD4 T cells lacking the appropriate coreceptor as an itinerant virus reservoir. View Publication

PURPOSE: The combination of erlotinib and gemcitabine has shown a small but statistically significant survival advantage when compared with gemcitabine alone in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. However,the overall survival rate with the erlotinib and gemcitabine combination is still low. In this study,we sought to identify gene targets that,when inhibited,would enhance the activity of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted therapies in pancreatic cancer cells. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: A high-throughput RNA interference (RNAi) screen was carried out to identify candidate genes. Selected gene hits were further confirmed and mechanisms of action were further investigated using various assays. RESULTS: Six gene hits from siRNA screening were confirmed to significantly sensitize BxPC-3 pancreatic cancer cells to erlotinib. One of the hits,mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) 1,was selected for further mechanistic studies. Combination treatments of erlotinib and two MAP kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitors,RDEA119 and AZD6244,showed significant synergistic effect for both combinations (RDEA119-erlotinib and AZD6244-erlotinib) compared with the corresponding single drug treatments in pancreatic cancer cell lines with wild-type KRAS (BxPC-3 and Hs 700T) but not in cell lines with mutant KRAS (MIA PaCa-2 and PANC-1). The enhanced antitumor activity of the combination treatment was further verified in the BxPC-3 and MIA PaCa-2 mouse xenograft model. Examination of the MAPK signaling pathway by Western blotting indicated effective inhibition of the EGFR signaling by the drug combination in KRAS wild-type cells but not in KRAS mutant cells. CONCLUSIONS: Overall,our results suggest that combination therapy of an EGFR and MEK inhibitors may have enhanced efficacy in patients with pancreatic cancer. View Publication

The purpose of the present study was to characterize primitive epithelial progenitor populations present in adult normal human mammary tissue using a combination of flow cytometry and in vitro colony assay procedures. Three types of human breast epithelial cell (HBEC) progenitors were identified: luminal-restricted,myoepithelial-restricted and bipotent progenitors. The first type expressed epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM),alpha6 integrin and MUC1 and generated colonies composed exclusively of cells positive for the luminal-associated markers keratin 8/18,keratin 19,EpCAM and MUC1. Bipotent progenitors produced colonies containing a central core of cells expressing luminal markers surrounded by keratin 14+ myoepithelial-like cells. Single cell cultures confirmed the bipotentiality of these progenitors. Their high expression of alpha6 integrin and low expression of MUC1 suggests a basal position of these cells in the mammary epithelium in vivo. Serial passage in vitro of an enriched population of bipotent progenitors demonstrated that only myoepithelial-restricted progenitors could be readily generated under the culture conditions used. These results support a hierarchical branching model of HBEC progenitor differentiation from a primitive uncommitted cell to luminal- and myoepithelial-restricted progenitors. View Publication

Reversine (RV) is the synthetic purine identified from a protein kinase-based screen of purine mimetics and it has been shown to induce muscle myoblast differentiation into progenitor cells that can be further converted into other cell lineages. Since protein kinases play a pivotal role in cell cycle control,we hypothesize that RV might affect the proliferation of cancer cells. Herein we report that RV inhibited growth of cultured human tumor cells,respectively,PC-3,HeLa,CWR22Rv1,and DU-145 cells,and induced accumulation of polyploidal cells with textgreater or =4N DNA content. However,RV was without effect on growth of normal prostate epithelial cells. RV-treated PC-3 cells showed enlarged nuclei and an estimated 100-fold increase in cell size. Moreover,PC-3 cells treated with RV for 2-4 days were accompanied by a marked increase in the expression of p21(WAF1),a modest elevation in the levels of cyclin D3 and CDK6 and concomitantly,also a substantial reduction in cyclin B and CDK1. These results suggest that RV may induce polyploidy and increase in cell size by up-regulating p21(WAF1) and cyclin D3/CDK6,while simultaneously suppressing the expression of cyclin B and CDK1. View Publication

BACKGROUND: Excessive maturation of hematopoietic cells leads to a reduction of long-term proliferative capability during cord blood (CB) expansion. In this study,we report the effects of anit-CD52 (Alemtuzumab,Campath) on both short- and long-term ex vivo expansion of CB hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) by evaluating the potential role of Alemtuzumab in preserving the repopulating capability in CB HSC and nonlymphoid progenitors. METHODS: Ex vivo expansion experiments were carried out using freshly purified CB CD34(+)cells in StemSpantrade mark SFEM medium in the presence of stem cell factor,Flt3-Ligand and thrombopoietin at 50 ng/ml. Alemtuzumab (10 microg/ml) was used to deplete CD52(+) cells during the cultures. Flow cytometry was used to monitor CB HSC and their differentiation. Colony forming unit (CFU) assays and long term culture-initiating cell (LTC-IC) assays were performed on cells obtained from day 0 (before culture) and day 14 after cultures. Secondary cultures was performed using CD34(+) cells isolated at 35 days from primary cultures and further cultured in StemSpantrade mark SFEM medium for another 14 days to confirm the long term effect of alemtuzumab in liquid cultures. RESULTS: Compared to cytokines alone,addition of alemtuzumab resulted in a significant increase in total nucleated cells,absolute CD34(+) cells,myeloid and megakaryocytic progenitors,multi-lineage and myeloid CFU and LTC-IC. CONCLUSION: The results from current study suggested that the use of alemtuzumab for ex vivo expansion of CBHSC maybe advantageous. Our findings may improve current technologies for CBHSC expansion and increase the availability of CB units for transplantation. However,in vivo studies using animal models are likely needed in further studies to test the hematopoietic effects using such expanded CB products. View Publication

Natural killer (NK) cells trigger cytotoxicity and interferon (IFN)-gamma secretion on engagement of the natural-killer group (NKG)2D receptor or members of the natural cytotoxicity receptor (NCR) family,such as NKp46,by ligands expressed on tumour cells. However,it remains unknown whether T cells can regulate NK cell-mediated anti-tumour responses. Here,we investigated the early events occurring during T cell-tumour cell interactions,and their impact on NK cell functions. We observed that on co-culture with some melanomas,activated CD4(+) T cells promoted degranulation,and NKG2D- and NKp46-dependent IFN-gamma secretion by NK cells,probably owing to the capture of NKG2D and NKp46 ligands from the tumour-cell surface (trogocytosis). This effect was observed in CD4(+),CD8(+) and resting T cells,which showed substantial amounts of cell surface major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related protein A on co-culture with tumour cells. Our findings identify a new,so far,unrecognized mechanism by which effector T cells support NK cell function through the capture of specific tumour ligands with profound implications at the crossroad of innate and adaptive immunity. View Publication