Influence of tumor associated macrophages on invasion of colorectal cancer cells

Abstract

Objective To investigate the influence of tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) on invasion of colorectal cancer cells (CRCs).Methods To imitate tumor microenvironment,Transwell chamber was used to co-culture TAMs (1 × 109/L) with CRCs Lovo (1 × 109/L) and SW480 cells (1 ×109/L),or supernatants collected from TAMs at 24 h and then added into Lovo (1 × 109/L) and SW480 (1 × 109/L) cells for another 24 h.The invasion ability of Lovo and SW480 cells was tested by using Transwell invasion assay.Results The invasion ability of both the two co-cultured cancer cells was significantly increased (for SW480,303 ± 23 vs.211 ± 18,P ＜ 0.05 ; and for Lovo,344 ± 22 vs.230 ± 12,P ＜ 0.05).The invasion ability of the cancer cells incubated with conditioned medium was not significantly enhanced (for Lovo,257 ± 22 vs.221 ± 17,P ＞ 0.05 ; and for SW480,233 ± 11 vs.209 ± 19,P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion TAMs could improve CRCs invasion through the interaction in the tumor microencironment. Key words: Tumor associated macrophage ; Colorectal cancer; Tumor microenvironment