Experimental study on co-culture of early embryo and cancer cells in vitro / 生物医学工程学杂志

ABSTRACT

The co-culture system of early embryos and cancer cells is an important means to observe the biological behavior changes of embryos and cancer cells in vitro. In this study, we co-cultured the 3.5 dpc mouse embryo with malignant tumor cells, investigated the development of blastocyst by observing the hatchment, attachment and outgrowth, observed the biological behavior changes of cancer cells in the embryonic circumstances, and detected the proliferation and apoptosis of cancer cells. Compared with the control, the embryos developed normally in the tumor environments, and the rate of hatchment, attachment and outgrowth increased significantly (P<0.05). However, there was no significant change of cancer cells in morphology, proliferation and apoptosis in the co-culture system (P>0.05). Under the co-culture system, the early embryo developed normally, and the cancer cells also grew well. There may be similarities between the embryos and cancer cell's choice for living. Moreover, the growth of embryos could be promoted by cancer cells in the co-culture system. This might be related to the similarities of gene expression, growth factors and signal transduction mechanisms between embryos and cancer cells.