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A novel method to generate single-cell-derived cancer-associated fibroblast clones

  • Original Article – Cancer Research
  • Published:
Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) communicate with cancer cells to play important roles in tumor progression. However, CAFs have heterogeneous phenotypes and functions. To understand how much of this heterogeneity relates to different biological responses, a more efficient method of generating single-cell-derived CAF clones is required.

Method

We transduced two primary CAF cultures (CAFs-608 and CAFs-621) from lung adenocarcinoma with human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), mutant forms of cyclin dependent kinase 4 (CDK4R24C) independently and in combination (hTERT/CDK4R24C). After live imaging of each sorted-single cell, we evaluated the numbers of successfully established clones from CAFs-hTERT, CAFs-CDK4R24C, and CAFs-hTERT/CDK4R24C. Furthermore, we examined the expression levels of genes associated with tumor promoting pathways in established clones by qRT-PCR.

Results

Overexpression of hTERT and CDK4R24C efficiently extended the lifespan of both CAFs-608 and CAFs-621. The number of established CAF clones was highest for CAFs-hTERT/CDK4R24C, with 57 and 62 clones established from CAFs-608 and CAFs-621, respectively. Conversely, 16 and 11 CAFs-hTERT clones were derived from CAFs-608 and CAFs-621, respectively and 10 and 8 CAFs-CDK4R24C clones were from CAFs-608 and CAFs-621, respectively. TGF-b, ATCA2, and HSF1 mRNA levels differed in individual clones established from CAFs-hTERT/CDK4R24C. The expression levels of ATCA2 and HSF1 were much higher in one clone than in the other established clones and the parental CAFs.

Conclusion

Our results show that combined exogenous expression of hTERT and mutant CDK4 is an effective method to generate single-cell-derived CAF clones. This provides an innovative and suitable approach to investigate the heterogeneous function and phenotype of CAFs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund (23-A-12 and 23-K-18), the Princess (Takamatsunomiya Cancer Research Fund), and JSPS KAKENHI (24659185).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pathology, Exploratory Oncology Research and Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center, Kashiwa, 277-8577, Japan

    Hiroko Hashimoto, Yoshitaka Suda, Tomoyuki Miyashita, Atsushi Ochiai & Genichiro Ishii

  2. Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan

    Yoshitaka Suda, Tomoyuki Miyashita, Atsushi Ochiai & Genichiro Ishii

  3. Division of Thoracic Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan

    Masahiro Tsuboi

  4. Division of Cancer Stem Cell, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tsukiji, Japan

    Kenkichi Masutomi

  5. Division of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tsukiji, Japan

    Tohru Kiyono

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  1. Hiroko Hashimoto
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  2. Yoshitaka Suda
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Correspondence to Genichiro Ishii.

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Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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432_2017_2409_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. 1 mRNA expression in CAFs, CAFs-hTERT, CAFs-CDK4R24C and CAFs-hTERT/CDK4R24C measured by qRT-PCR. Vertical axis shows target gene/GAPDH*100. (TIF 15805 KB)

432_2017_2409_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. 2 Morphological appearance of established clones from CAFs-hTERT and CAFs-CDK4R24C. Immunofluorescence microscopic images of established clones from CAFs-608-hTERT (upper) and CAFs-608-CDK4R24C (lower). (TIF 6482 KB)

432_2017_2409_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. 3 Morphological appearance of established clones from CAFs-hTERT/CDK4R24C. Immunofluorescence microscopic images of established clones from CAFs-608- hTERT/CDK4R24C. The morphology of each clone is divided into 4 types; 1) cells with a typical fibroblast morphology (clone 10, 18, 32, 39, 46, et al.), 2) cells with a more short spindle shape (clone 3, 19, 29, et al.), 3) cells with a more stellate shape (clone 1, 16, 42, 57, et al.), and 4) cell with a more elongated shape (clone 50, 56, et al.). (TIF 31304 KB)

432_2017_2409_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. 4 Scatter plot of hTERT/CDK4R24C mRNA levels vs TGFB/ATCA2/HSF1mRNA levels. Spearman’s rank correlation scatter plot of hTERT/CDK4R24C mRNA levels (Y axis) and TGFB/ATCA2/ levels (X axis) in established 14 clones. (TIF 5721 KB)

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Supplementary material 6 (PDF 21 KB)

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Hashimoto, H., Suda, Y., Miyashita, T. et al. A novel method to generate single-cell-derived cancer-associated fibroblast clones. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 143, 1409–1419 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-017-2409-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-017-2409-3

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