Abstract 4086: Efficient primary culture model of patient-derived epithelial cells from colorectal cancer using a ROCK inhibitor and feeder cells

In vitro culture for patient-derived cells offers many advances in the development of novel therapies for colorectal cancer. Although various culture systems have been developed, experimental systems in which the long-term expansion of patient-derived epithelial cells still remained difficult. Here, we demonstrated that epithelial cells isolated from colorectal cancer patient-derived xenograft can be efficiently immortalized in conditioned medium from irradiated feeder cells containing a Rho kinase inhibitor Y-27632. Patient-derived tumor cells were rapidly proliferated to reach confluence in approximately 6 days. Short tandem repeat (STR) analysis of tumor tissue and cultured cells demonstrate that they have 13 identical STR loci and Amelogenin, Penta E, Penta D, D2S1338 and D19S433. The epithelial character was confirmed by staining for EpCAM, cytokeratin 20 and vimentin as a mesenchymal marker. Cells were continued to proliferate and formed well-defined tumor spheroids when transferred to 3D culture. To study the mechanism for promoting unrestricted cell proliferation, we investigated the expression of several cellular genes that fall into two designated pathways, induction of telomerase and cytoskeletal remodeling/p16 pathway. Moreover, patient-derived tumor cells were utilized for high-throughput screening of FDA approved drugs allowing detection of gene-drug associations. Collectively, we demonstrate that the long-term expansion of patient-derived tumor epithelial cells and these cells could be a useful tool in order to investigate a personalized treatment approach. Citation Format: Hyekyung Hong, Nakhyeon Yun, Taewon Kim, Yeosong Lee, Sujeong Song, Jaemoon Bae, Wooyong Lee, Yongbeom Cho. Efficient primary culture model of patient-derived epithelial cells from colorectal cancer using a ROCK inhibitor and feeder cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4086.