Abstract
Tumor growth after radiotherapy is a commonly recognized cause of therapeutic failure. In this way, we examined tumor cell growth after radiotherapy by establishing a cancer cell growth model in vitro. We accomplished this model by seeding non-irradiated firefly luciferase2 and green fluorescent protein fusion gene (Fluc) labeled living cancer reporter cells onto a feeder layer of irradiated cancer cells. The living tumor cell growth was monitored by bioluminescence imaging. The living reporter cells grew faster when seeded onto lethally irradiated feeder cells than when seeded onto non-irradiated feeder cells or when seeded in the absence of feeder cells. We found that the expression levels of the Shh and Gli1 proteins, both of which are critical proteins in Sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling, were increased after irradiation and that this expression was positively correlated with reporter cell growth. Moreover, the dying cell stimulation of living tumor cell growth was enhanced by the addition of SHH signaling agonists and inhibited by SHH signaling antagonists. SHH agonists also enhanced reporter cell growth in the absence of irradiated feeder cells, suggesting this mechanism plays a role in feeder cell growth stimulation. Given these results, we conclude that SHH signaling activation plays an important role during tumor repopulation after radiotherapy.
Highlights
In many types of cancer, tumor repopulation after radiotherapy occurs and poses a major challenge for clinicians
Repopulation during fractionated radiotherapy is recognized as an important cause of treatment failure and evidence suggests that the rate of repopulation may occur at an accelerated pace in some cases [1]
Repopulation of surviving tumor cells can occur between dose fractions of either radiation or chemotherapy and can lead to treatment failure [14]
Summary
In many types of cancer, tumor repopulation after radiotherapy occurs and poses a major challenge for clinicians In this process, the few tumor cells that survive after radiotherapy will regrow and replace lost tumor cells. In order to create a model for studying tumor cell repopulation after radiotherapy, many others have tried using so-called ‘‘feeder cells’’ that have been treated with radiation to promote the growth of untreated tumor cells seeded in co-culture experiments. This model does not directly show repopulation of treated cancer cells during radiotherapy, we believe that the growth-promoting signals released from lethally treated feeder cells replicate the conditions in a homogenously treated tumor. We will use the concept of repopulation and dying cell stimulated living tumor cell growth synonymously throughout our study
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