Abstract 1565: Significance of elemental content and distribution profiles in assessing established cell lines as surrogates for cancer tissues from two different organs.

Abstract

Abstract Studies have shown that defective metal homeostasis is very essential to the development of the cancer phenotype in many cancers including lung and liver carcinomas. Low Zn levels as well as overexpression of metalothioneins were implicated in the development and progression of various cancers. Wider elemental profiles that relate cancer and normal phenotypes with regards to metal homeostasis were not well elucidated in the literature. To this end, established cell lines are currently used as accepted models for studying cancer but the level of their representation of actual cancer tissues was not clear. This study is attempting to assess the relevance of cell lines currently is use as surrogates for cancer and establish their relationship to actual normal and cancer tissues from humans. We hypothesize that elemental content and distribution profiles in cancer and normal tissue are significantly different from those possessed by established cell lines. We used Inductivity Coupled Plasma (ICP-Mass Spectroscopy) for lung and liver samples obtained from normal and cancer human cadaver tissues (US Biomax) and cell models of lung and liver carcinomas; the A549 and HepG2 cell lines (ATCC), to analyze for elements and test the hypothesis. Samples prepared using standardized digestion procedures were loaded onto the ICP-MS equipment to test for a profile consisting of 12 elements, namely, Zn, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ca, Al, Co, Ba, Cr, Ni and Se. Analysis of data showed significant variations in elemental content and distribution profiles between the cell models and actual tissues consistent with the hypothesis. It is concluded that elemental homeostasis is essential for normal tissue function and that shifts in their distribution and content are essential in determining the use of cell models as surrogates for studying cancer. These results are promising and warrant further studies to confirm the relevance of cell line models in relation to their use as screening tools for examining targeted cancer therapeutics. Citation Format: Ibrahim O. Farah, Zikri Arslan, Wellington K. Ayensu. Significance of elemental content and distribution profiles in assessing established cell lines as surrogates for cancer tissues from two different organs. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1565. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1565