Oxygen-Related Differences in Cellular and Vesicular Phenotypes Observed for Ovarian Cell Cancer Lines

Evo K. Lindersson Søndergaard; Lotte Hatting Pugholm; Rikke Bæk; Malene Møller Jørgensen; Anne Louise Schacht Revenfeld; Kim Varming

doi:10.33393/jcb.2016.2069

Authors

Evo K. Lindersson Søndergaard Department of Clinical Immunology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
Lotte Hatting Pugholm Department of Clinical Immunology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
Rikke Bæk Department of Clinical Immunology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
Malene Møller Jørgensen Department of Clinical Immunology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
Anne Louise Schacht Revenfeld Department of Clinical Immunology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
Kim Varming Department of Clinical Immunology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33393/jcb.2016.2069

Keywords:

Extracellular Vesicles, Ovarian Cancer Cell Line, EV Array, Phenotype, Hypoxia

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are one of several tools that cells use to communicate with each other. This communication is facilitated by a number of surface-associated proteins and the cargo of the vesicles. For several cancer types, the amount of EVs is observed to be up-regulated in patients compared to healthy individuals, possibly signifying the presence of an aberrant process. The hypoxia-induced release of EVs from cancer cells has been hypothesized to cause the malignant transformation of healthy recipient cells. In this study, the phenotype of cells and EVs from the ovarian cancer cell lines, COV504, SKOV3, and Pt4, were quantified and analysed under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. It was shown that both cells and EVs express common markers and that the EV phenotype varies more than the cellular phenotype. Additionally, cells subjected to 24 hours of hypoxia compared to normoxia produced more EVs. The phenotyping of EVs from cancer cell lines provides information about their molecular composition. This information may be translated to knowledge regarding the functionality of EVs and lead to a better understanding of their role in cancer.