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Endometrial cancer and its cell lines

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Abstract

Endometrial cancer is one of the most common gynaecological malignancies worldwide. One type of research in this field is the growing of cell lines (CLs) and cultures, which can be used to explore the biological mechanisms of cancer. The purpose of this review is to offer an overview of the current literature and highlight the importance of correct CL studies. We carried out a literature analysis of more than 60 articles from the Pubmed, Medline databases that were almost exclusively published in indexed journals in the last 10 years as well as the primary originating scientific studies of specific CLs. We then summarized the newest findings and recommendations. Cell lines are becoming widely used as in vitro tumour models. Recent work has shown inconsistencies in nomenclature and culturing of CLs. Their genomic evolution leads to a high degree of variation across CL strains therefore it is of the utmost importance to recognize the variability within laboratory cancer models. Laboratories must adapt, incorporate additional characterisation techniques and view this situation as an opportunity to improve the reproducibility of pre-clinical cancer research. The authors offer a comprehensive literature review about endometrial cancer CLs, a review of the current literature and advice on culturing CLs.

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Fig. 1

Adapted from van Nyen et al. [14]

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Adapted from Skok et al. [55]

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Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support for this project received from the Slovenian Research Agency (Grant Numbers: P3-0036 and I0-0029), as well as the financial support from University Medical Centre Maribor, Slovenia (IRP-2018/01-19).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Maribor, Taborska Ulica 8, SI-2000, Maribor, Slovenia

    Kristijan Skok, Uroš Maver & Lidija Gradišnik

  2. Department of Pathology, General Hospital Graz II, Location West, Göstinger Straße 22, 8020, Graz, Austria

    Kristijan Skok

  3. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

    Uroš Maver

  4. Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, Taborska ulica 8, 2000, Maribor, Slovenia

    Nejc Kozar, Iztok Takač & Darja Arko

  5. Division of Gynaecology and Perinatology, University Medical Center Maribor, Ljubljanska 5, 2000, Maribor, Slovenia

    Nejc Kozar, Iztok Takač & Darja Arko

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  1. Kristijan Skok
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KS, UM, LG, NK, DA and IT designed the study. KS, UM, LG, NK, DA and IT wrote the manuscript and prepared the figures. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kristijan Skok or Darja Arko.

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UKC-MB-KME-31/18.

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Skok, K., Maver, U., Gradišnik, L. et al. Endometrial cancer and its cell lines. Mol Biol Rep 47, 1399–1411 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-019-05226-3

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