Objective The aim is to sort CD90+ subpopulation cells in human liver cancer cell lines and investigate efficiency of magnetic cell sorting (MACS) on sorting the liver cancer stem cells. Methods ①Expressions of CD90. Immunohistochemical method was used to determine the expressions of CD90 in normal liver tissues in 8 cases, liver cancer and adjacent liver cancer tissues in 58 cases. ②Screened the cell lines. Huh-7, MHCC97-H, Bel-7402, and SMMC-7721 cell lines were divided into blank control group and experimental group (5.5×105 cells per hole, 1 hole), cells of the experimental group were added with 5 μL CD90–PE while cells of the blank control group were treated with 5 μL CD90–PE non fluorescent antibody. Determined the proportion of CD90+ cells in the 2 groups by flow cytometry (FCM). ③MACS. Huh-7 and MHCC97-H cell lines were labeled with magnetic beads respectively and sorted by MACS, 1 mL cell suspensionsorted by magnetic sorting (MS) was collected as CD90– group, and 1 mL PBS after MS wash was collected as CD90+ group, as well as blank control group and experimental group. Determined the proportion of CD90+ cells in 4 groups by FCM. Two times of MACS were performed in Huh-7 cells. ④Serum free culture and serum culture. Huh-7 cells were divided into serum-free culture group and serum culture group (1 hole), and proportions of CD90+ cells were determined by FCM at 1 week after culture. Results ①The positive rate of CD90 was 0 (0/8), 65.5% (38/58), and 20.7% (12/58) in normal liver tissues, liver cancer tissues, and adjacent liver cancer tissues respectively, and the positive rate of CD90 was higher in liver cancer tissues than those of normal liver tissues (χ2=6.78, P<0.05) and adjacent liver cancer tissues (χ2=20.83, P<0.05). ②For Huh-7, MHCC97-H, SMMC-7721, and Bel7402 cell lines, the proportions of CD90+ cells in the experimental group was 0.851%, 1.090%, 2.710%, and 4.050% respectively, the proportions of CD90+ cells in the blank control group was 0.241%, 0.688%, 1.890%, and 2.080% respectively, so we chose Huh-7 and MHCC97-H cell lines to perform MACS. ③Results of MACS for Huh-7 cell line. For the first MACS, the proportions of CD90+ cells in the blank control group, experimental group, CD90– group, and CD90+ group was 0.241%, 0.851%, 0.574%, and 1.100% respectively. For the second MACS, the proportions of CD90+ cells in the blank control group, experimental group, CD90– group, and CD90+ group was 0.032%, 0.961%, 0.426%, and 9.700% respectively. Conclusions The normal liver tissues do not express the CD90, but the liver cancer tissues express CD90 highly. There is a few CD90+ cells in Huh-7 and MHCC97-H liver cancer cell lines. The MACS has a certain effect on improving the proportion of CD90+ cells in the cell lines. The serum-free suspension culture has no effect on enriching CD90+ cells.
ObjectiveTo explore the effects of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) on the reverse differentiation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells into liver cancer stem cells, and the maintenance of malignant biological behavior in hypoxic environment.MethodsCD133-negative cells in HepG2 cells were separated by immunomagnetic beads and divided into two groups. The cells of siRNA group were transfected with siRNA-HIF-1α to silence the expression of HIF-1α gene, while cells of the blank control group did not transfect any siRNA fragments. The two groups of cells were cultured under normal and hypoxic conditions respectively. MTT, cloning and Transwell chamber experiments were used to detect the proliferation and invasion ability of cells. Western blot and real-time PCR (RT-PCR) were used to detect the expressions of HIF-1α, CD133, CD90, and CD44 protein and mRNA in cells.ResultsMTT results showed that the cell proliferation rate increased with the prolongation of hypoxia in four groups. Compared with the blank control group at 24, 32, 40, and 48 hours, the cell proliferation rate decreased significantly after siRNA-HIF-1a transfection, on both two kinds of cultured conditions (P<0.05). The results of plate cloning experiment showed that the number of cell-forming clones increased significantly after hypoxic culture (there were significant differences between the transfected normoxic group and transfected hypoxic group, blank control normoxic group and blank control hypoxic group, P<0.05); and the formation of transfected hypoxic condition group at the same time of hypoxia was also significant (P<0.05). The number of clones were significantly less than that of the blank control group at the hypoxic condition (P<0.05). Transwell lab experiment showed that after hypoxic culture, the number of cells migrated to the inferior chamber in the transfection group was significantly reduced compared with that of the blank control group (P<0.05). Western blot and RT-PCR results showed that the expression levels of HIF-1α protein and tumor stem cell markers (CD133, CD90, and CD44 protein) in the blank control hypoxic condition group were significantly higher than those in the other three groups (P<0.05); after siRNA-HIF-1a transfection, HIF-1α mRNA and tumor stem cell markers mRNA (CD133, CD90, and CD44 mRNA) in the transfected hypoxic condition group were significantly lower than those in the transfected normal condition group and the blank control normal condition group (P<0.05).ConclusionsIn hypoxia environment, HIF-1α can promote hepatocellular carcinoma cells to differentiate into liver cancer stem cells and enhance their malignant biological behavior.