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Bovine-derived cultured cells, including Madin-Darby bovine kidney cells, are used worldwide; however, lipofection tend to result in low transfection efficiency, which has impeded the progress of veterinary research. We performed experiments to confirm the lipofection efficiency of bovine-derived cultured cells, to identify cells that suitable for lipofection. Several bovine tissues (endometrium, testis, ear tissue and foetal muscle) were collected, and primary cultured cells were prepared. Lipofection assay showed that only bovine endometrium (BE)-derived cells could be transfected efficiently (50‒70%). BE cells can be divided into at least two types of cell populations (BE-1 and BE-2). The BE-1 cells, which were suitable for lipofection, were obtained by passages at short intervals and were negative for cytokeratin- and positive for vimentin-expression; the BE-2 cells did not have these characteristics and were not suitable for lipofection. Furthermore, the BE-1 cells and artificially immortalised cells of BE-1, iBE-1 cells, were utilised in a reporter assay requiring the introduction of multiple DNAs. Endometrial tissues can be collected from living cows, and BE-1 cells can be obtained easily by controlling passaging timing. The production of BE-1 cells and sharing the methods required to prepare them will contribute to the development of veterinary research.

Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPeM) is a rare and aggressive form of malignant mesothelioma. Sufficient biological tools for studying the functional characteristics of this cancer have not been developed. Therefore, in this study, a novel human cancer cell line, KOG-1, was established from ascites fluids isolated from a 39-year-old Japanese woman with pemetrexed-resistant MPeM. Cells were dendritic or linear immediately after thawing, showed a jigsaw puzzle-like and spindle arrangement during growth, and formed monolayers without contact inhibition in two-dimensional (2D) culture. The population doubling time was 13.7 h. Karyotypic and molecular genetic analyses showed that chromosome numbers ranged from 62 to 142, with a peak of 73 with complicated copy number alterations. No germline BAP1 pathogenic variant was detected. Cells expressed various tumor markers of mesothelioma, such as calretinin, podoplanin, and Wilms tumor 1 (WT-1). Drug sensitivity and resistance testing with a set of 36 drugs using 2D and three-dimensional (3D) culture models demonstrated that KOG-1 cells showed high and low sensitivity to pemetrexed under 2D and 3D culture conditions, respectively, whereas control ovarian cancer cell lines showed low sensitivity to pemetrexed under both culture conditions. This newly established cell line will be a valuable biological resource to expand the feasibility of functional studies as well as drug testing for potential therapeutic purposes in MPeM.

Objective: Ovarian cancer is a poor-prognosis gynecologic disease with over 220,000 diagnoses each year worldwide and a 5-year survival rate less than 40%. In this study, we present a method for isolation and characterization of ovarian cancer cells from patient-derived ascites and tissue samples by using three-dimensional (3D) cell culture. Materials and Methods: Ascites and tissue samples were obtained from primary ovarian, peritoneal, and fallopian tube cancer patients intraoperatively. Samples were isolated and cultured within 6 hours after collection. After isolation, cells were resuspended in Matrigel and were placed at the center of each well. Optimized medium is added to each well. NanoCulture Plate LH96 (Low-Binding, MH pattern, 96-wells, Medical and Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd., Japan) were used for 3D cell culture. Plates were incubated at 37°C. The cultures were examined for metabolically active cells by ATP assay and medium changed on days 0, 1, 4, 7, 10, and 14. Results: We successfully obtained ascites-derived primary cell cultures within 1-7 days from 100% (3/31) of the ascites samples and 62% (5/8) from tissue-derived primary cell cultures. Spheroids-like structures were formed in 30% (1/3) of ascites samples and 50% (4/8) of tissue samples. The tumorigenicity and invasiveness of the cells were demonstrated using new 3D spheroid model cultured in vitro by NanoCulture Plate LH96. Conclusion: Primary ascites and tissue culture of ovarian cancer cells can successfully be cultured by 3D cell culture plates. We may apply this method for drug sensitivity testing; therefore, 3D cell culture has a potential to evaluate the sensitivity of candidate chemotherapeutic drug for individual patients. Citation Format: Yoshiko Nanki, Akira Hirasawa, Hiroyuki Nomura, Aki Okubo, Manabu Itoh, Tomoko Akahane, Tatsuyuki Chiyoda, Fumio Kataoka, Eiichiro Tominaga, Daisuke Aoki. Ascites-derived and tissue-derived ovarian cancer cell primary 3D cultures aimed for personalized medicine. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Conference: Addressing Critical Questions in Ovarian Cancer Research and Treatment; Oct 1-4, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(15_Suppl):Abstract nr A61.

We observed the cell surface of Paramecium trichium using three different methods. A non-dividing paramecium's cell surface consisted of three major regions outside of the oral apparatus: a) an oral groove region, with 2-cilia-2-basal-body (2C-2BB) units; b) a posterior region, occupying 1/4 to 1/5 of the cell surface, with 1-cilium-l-basal-body (1C-1BB) units; c) the remainder, with l-cilium-2-basal-body (1C-2BB) units. Five kinds of region-specific cortical reorganization occurred prior to cytokinesis: the 2C-2BB and 1C-1BB units were not duplicated, while the 1C-2BB units were reorganized to 2C-2BB, 1C-2BB or 1C-1BB units. These reorganizations of the cell surface progressed from the fission line to the anterior in the prospective anterior daughter cell, and to the posterior in the prospective posterior daughter cell, and bilaterally from the old and also newly developing oral apparatus in both daughter cells. In contrast, the development of cilia and their associated structures in each of the cortical units always progressed from posterior to anterior. The present work also showed that two fission lines began to develop bilaterally from the oral primordium, and then they joined to become a single fission line at the dorsal surface.

One of the monoclonal antibodies raised against mitotic HeLa cells (termed as mH3) recognized a 27-kDa protein and stained microtubules in the mitotic spindles of HeLa cells. Immunoscreening of a HeLa cDNA library revealed that mH3 antigen is a small heat shock protein, HSP27. Immunoprecipitation analysis using mH3 suggested that both α- and β-tubulin are associated with HSP27. Further, sucrose-cushioned ultra centrifugation revealed that HSP27 is co-sedimented with taxol-stabilized microtubules. These results indicate that HSP27 associates with tubulin/microtubules in HeLa cells.

Hybridoma cell lines were prepared from spleen cells of mouse immunized with mitotic HeLa cells. A monoclonal antibody (mH1), which intensively reacted with cleavage furrows of dividing HeLa cells in immunofluorescence, was obtained. In interphase, this antibody diffusely stained whole HeLa cells. Immunoelectron microscopy showed that mH1 antigens were localized at microvillus projections at the surface of dividing HeLa cells, but definite localization of that antigen was not observed in interphasic cells. Immunoblot analysis showed that mH1 is reactive to 42-kDa and 130-kDa components. Further, the 42-kDa component was identified as a gamma-actin homolog by N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis.