Modelado Quimioterapia Leucemia resistente<em> In Vitro</em

Summary

The current report summarizes a protocol that can be utilized to model the influence of the bone marrow microenvironment niche on leukemic cells with emphasis placed on enrichment of the most chemoresistant subpopulation.

Abstract

It is well established that the bone marrow microenvironment provides a unique site of sanctuary for hematopoietic diseases that both initiate and progress in this site. The model presented in the current report utilizes human primary bone marrow stromal cells and osteoblasts as two representative cell types from the marrow niche that influence tumor cell phenotype. The in vitro co-culture conditions described for human leukemic cells with these primary niche components support the generation of a chemoresistant subpopulation of tumor cells that can be efficiently recovered from culture for analysis by diverse techniques. A strict feeding schedule to prevent nutrient fluxes followed by gel type 10 cross-linked dextran (G10) particles recovery of the population of tumor cells that have migrated beneath the adherent bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) or osteoblasts (OB) generating a “phase dim” (PD) population of tumor cells, provides a consistent source of purified therapy resistant leukemic cells. This clinically relevant population of tumor cells can be evaluated by standard methods to investigate apoptotic, metabolic, and cell cycle regulatory pathways as well as providing a more rigorous target in which to test novel therapeutic strategies prior to pre-clinical investigations targeted at minimal residual disease.

Introduction

The overall goal of the method described is to provide an efficient, cost-effective in vitro approach that supports investigation of the mechanisms that underlie bone marrow supported survival of leukemic cells during chemotherapy exposure. It is well documented that surviving residual tumor cells that persist after treatment contribute to relapse of disease that is often more aggressive than that at diagnosis and is often less effectively treated^1-8. Models that include leukemic cells in isolation, such as those limited to culture of cells in media alone, for testing of therapeutic approaches do not factor in these critical signals, or the heterogeneity of disease that occurs in response to availability of niche derived cues in which tumor cell subpopulations with very specific interactions with niche cells derive enhanced protection. Standard 2D co-culture models that co-culture bone marrow derived stromal cells and leukemic cells have somewhat addressed the contribution of the marrow niche and have shown that interaction with bone marrow microenvironment cells increases their resistance to chemotherapy and alters their growth characteristics^9-14. These models however often fail to recapitulate long term survival of tumor cells and do not accurately inform the outcomes associated with the most resistant leukemic cell populations that contribute to MRD. In vivo models remain critical and define the “gold standard” for investigation of innovative therapies prior to clinical trials but they are often challenged by the time and cost required to test hypotheses related to resistant tumors and relapse of disease. As such, development of more informative 2D models would be of benefit for pilot investigations to better inform the design of subsequent murine based pre-clinical design.

The 2D in vitro model presented in this report lacks the complexity of the true in vivo microenvironment, but provides a cost effective and reproducible means to interrogate tumor interactions with the microenvironment that lends itself specifically to enrichment of the chemoresistant subpopulation of tumor cells. This distinction is valuable as evaluation of the entire population of tumor cells may mask the phenotype of a minor group of therapy resistant tumor cells that comprise the most important target. An additional advantage is the scalability of the model to fit the analysis of interest. Bulk cultures can be established for those analyses requiring significant recovery of tumor cells, while small scale co-cultures in multi-well plates can be utilized for PCR based analysis or microscopy based evaluations.

Based on this need we developed an in vitro model to address the heterogeneity of disease that is characteristic of B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We demonstrate that ALL cells, which share many characteristics in common with their healthy counterparts, localize to distinct compartments of BMSC or OB co-culture. Three populations of tumor cells are generated that have distinct phenotypes that are valuable for investigation of therapeutic response. Specifically, we demonstrate that (ALL) cells recovered from the “phase dim” (PD) population of co-culture are consistently refractory to therapy with survival that approximates tumor cells that have not been exposed to cytotoxic agents. These ALL cells, from either established cell lines or primary patient samples, migrate beneath adherent stromal cells or osteoblast layers but can be captured following trypsinization of cultures and separation of cell types by utilization of gel type 10 cross-linked dextran (G10) particle columns¹⁵.

Here we present a setup of a 2D co-culture that can be employed to model interactions between bone marrow microenvironment stromal cells (BMSC/OB) and leukemic cells. Of particular importance is the observation that leukemic cells form three spatial subpopulations relative to the stromal cell monolayer and that the PD population represents a chemotherapy resistant tumor population due to its interaction with the BMSC or OB. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to effectively isolate the leukemic cell populations by G10 columns. Of note, we have found that isolation of these subpopulations allows for downstream analysis of the most resistant PD population to determine potential modes of resistance that are conferred to these cells due to their interaction with the bone marrow microenvironment stromal cells or osteoblasts. Techniques that we have utilized downstream of this co-culture and isolation model include flow cytometric evaluation, proteomic analysis and targeted protein expression evaluation as well as more recently developed laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI) and Seahorse analysis to evaluate metabolic profiles. Through use of this model in combination with the techniques above we have found that the PD population of leukemic cells has a chemotherapy resistant phenotype that is unique when compared to leukemic cells cultured in media alone or those recovered from the other subpopulations in the same co-culture. As such, this model lends itself to more rigorous evaluation to test strategies targeting the most chemotherapy resistant leukemic cells which derive their resistant phenotype through interaction with the bone marrow microenvironment.

Protocol

1. Preparación Avanzada Preparación de partículas de dextrano del G-10. Preparar suspensión del G-10 mediante la adición de 50 ml de PBS 1x a 10 g de partículas del G-10. Mezclar por inversión y permitir que se asiente G10 de solución salina tamponada con fosfato (PBS) a 4 ° CO / N. El día del G10 separación en columna, aspirado de PBS a partir de partículas del G-10 se establecieron y añadir 50 ml de PBS. Mezclar por inversión. Repetir dos veces, añadiendo 50 ml de PBS a las…

Representative Results

La configuración correcta y la cultura de este modelo de co-cultivo se traducirá en el establecimiento de 3 subpoblaciones de células leucémicas en relación con el adherente BMSC o OB monocapa. La Figura 1 muestra cómo todas las células sembradas en una monocapa BMSC aparecen inicialmente como una única población de suspendido células leucémicas. En el transcurso de 4 días las células leucémicas interactúan con el BMSC para formar 3 subpoblaciones espacial…

Discussion

enfermedad mínima residual (MRD) que contribuye a la recaída de la enfermedad sigue siendo un importante reto clínico en el tratamiento de refractario agresivo ALL, así como, una serie de otras enfermedades malignas hematológicas. El microambiente de la médula ósea es el sitio más común de recidiva en TODA ^3,8. Como tal, los modelos que modelan el microambiente de la médula ósea son herramientas vitales para poner a prueba hipótesis relacionadas con la supervivencia de las células tumorales de le…

Materials

G10 sephadex beads	Sigma	G10120	Referred to in manuscript as gel type 10 cross-linked dextran particles
10 ml sterile syringe	BD	309604
Glass wool	Pyrex	3950
1-way stopcocks	World Precision Instruments, Inc.	14054-10
50 ml conical centrifuge tubes	World Wide Medical Products	41021039	Used as collection tubes
15 ml conical centrifuge tubes	World Wide Medical Products	41021037	Used for cell collection
Fetal Bovine Serum	Sigma	F6178
0.05% Trypsin	Mediatech, Inc.	25-053-CI
100X20mm Cell Culture Dishes	Greiner Bio-One	664160
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Culture media
Osteoblast culture media	PromoCell	C-27001	For human osteoblast media
RPMI 1640 media	Mediatech, Inc.	15-040	For tumor media prepation
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Cell lines
Adherent Cells
Human Osteoblasts	PromoCell	C-12720	Human osteoblast were cultured according to the supplier’s recommendations.
Human Bone Morrow Stromal Cells	WVU Biospecimen Core		De-identified primary human leukemia and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) were provided by the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center (MBRCC) Biospecimen Processing Core and the West Virginia University Department of Pathology Tissue Bank. BMSC cultures were established as previously described (*)
Leukemic Cells:
REH	ATCC	ATCC-CRL-8286	REH cells were cultured according to the supplier’s recommendations and recommended media.
SD-1	DSMZ	ACC 366	SD-1 were cultured according to the supplier’s recommendations and recommended media.
(*) Gibson LF, Fortney J, Landreth KS, Piktel D, Ericson SG, Lynch JP. Disruption of bone marrow stromal cell function by etoposide. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant J Am Soc Blood Marrow Transplant. 1997 Aug;3(3):122–32.