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Culture of low passage colorectal cancer cells and demonstration of variation in selected tumour marker expression

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Abstract

There is increasing evidence that a tumour comprises of heterogeneous population of cells. Thus, studying homogenous cell lines in vitro may yield results that are not reflective of the true situation in a tumour and studying low passage cell lines maintained in a heterogeneous population before they transform away from the original state may provide a more complete picture of colorectal cancer. A method was developed to isolate and establish low passage colorectal cancer cell lines from tumour biopsies. The media contents, combination of antimicrobials and specimen collection and transport conditions employed, successfully eliminated microbial contamination which is frequently present in samples obtained from the gastrointestinal tract. A variety of growth forms indicating a heterogeneous mixture of cells was seen in the initial cultures. Using fluorescence immunocytochemistry, primary tumour cultures were shown to variably express selected tumour markers, carcinoembryonic antigen and C2 antigen. These low passage cell lines growing in a heterogeneous environment would more closely reflect the characteristics of the cells of the original tumour.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial support received from the MAKNA Cancer Research Award 2007, University of Malaya Research University Grant RG014/09HTM and University of Malaya Postgraduate Research Fund PS288/2007B. We thank the University Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur surgeons who were involved in providing the tumour specimens for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Melanie Arul & Swee Hung Cheah

  2. Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    April Camilla Roslani

  3. Tropicana Medical Centre, 11 Jalan Teknologi, Taman Sains Selangor 1, PJU 5, Kota Damansara, 47810, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

    Colin Leong Liong Ng

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  1. Melanie Arul
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  2. April Camilla Roslani
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  4. Swee Hung Cheah
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Correspondence to Swee Hung Cheah.

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Arul, M., Roslani, A.C., Ng, C.L.L. et al. Culture of low passage colorectal cancer cells and demonstration of variation in selected tumour marker expression. Cytotechnology 66, 481–491 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-013-9600-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-013-9600-4

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