Morphological and molecular characteristics of spheroid formation in HT-29 and Caco-2 colorectal cancer cell lines

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundRelapse and metastasis in colorectal cancer (CRC) are often attributed to cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), as small sub-population of tumor cells with ability of drug resistance. Accordingly, development of appropriate models to investigate CSCs biology and establishment of effective therapeutic strategies is warranted. Hence, we aimed to assess the capability of two widely used and important colorectal cancer cell lines, HT-29 and Caco-2, in generating spheroids and their detailed morphological and molecular characteristics.MethodsCRC spheroids were developed using hanging drop and forced floating in serum-free and non-attachment conditions and their morphological features were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Then, the potential of CSCs enrichment in spheroids was compared to their adherent counterparts by analysis of serial sphere formation capacity, real-time PCR of key stemness genes (KLF4,OCT4,SOX2,NANOG,C-MYC) and the expression of potential CRC-CSCs surface markers (CD166, CD44, and CD133) by flow cytometry. Finally, the expression level of some EMT-related (Vimentin,SNAIL1,TWIST1,N-cadherin,E-cadherin,ZEB1) and multi-drug resistant (ABCB1,ABCC1,ABCG2) genes was evaluated.ResultsAlthough with different morphological features, both cell lines were formed CSCs-enriched spheroids, indicated by ability to serial sphere formation, significant up-regulation of stemness genes,SOX2,C-MYC, NANOGandOCT4in HT-29 andSOX2,C-MYCandKLF4in Caco-2 spheroids (p-value < 0.05) and increased expression of CRC-CSC markers compared to parental cells (p-value < 0.05). Additionally, HT-29 spheroids exhibited a significant higher expression of bothABCB1andABCG2(p-value = 0.02). The significant up-regulation of promoting EMT genes,ZEB1,TWIST1,E-cadherinandSNAIL1in HT-29 spheroids (p-value = 0.03),SNAIL1andVimentinin Caco-2 spheroids (p-value < 0.05) andN-cadherindown-regulation in both spheroids were observed.ConclusionEnrichment of CSC-related features in HT-29 and Caco-2 (for the first time without applying special scaffold/biochemical) spheroids, suggests spheroid culture as robust, reproducible, simple and cost-effective model to imitate the complexity of in vivo tumors including self-renewal, drug resistance and invasion for in vitro research of CRC-CSCs.