Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor on the growth of human ovarian carcinoma cells in vitro

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) is a member of a family of glycoprotein hormones that stimulates the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells in vivo and in vitro. In ovarian cancer chemotherapy, GCSF is used clinically to build up bone marrow function after severe cytotoxicity to granulocytes by chemotherapy. Little is known about the effects of these cytokines on the growth of cancer cells. To study the influence of GCSF on the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells in vitro, five established ovarian cancer cell lines (OC-89-VGH, OC-117-VGH, OCPC-2-VGH, NIH-OVCAR-3, and NIH-SK-OV-3) were treated with the concentration ranging from 0.1 pg to 10 ng GCSF for 5 days and compared with vehicle control. In addition, we also examined the effect of GCSF (0. 01-1.0 ng) on eight primary cultures of fresh ovarian cancer tissues. Cell viability after treatment was measured by Cell Titer AQueous assay and expressed as a percentage of untreated control cultures. A decrease in cell growth (75-85%) was observed in OC-89-VGH, OC-117-VGH and OCPC-2-VGH cell lines while NIH-OVCAR-3 and NIH-SK-OV-3 cells showed minimal growth stimulation. However, all dose-response curves were nonsignificant, suggesting indirect effects. In the eight fresh tumor primary cultures treated with GCSF, no statistical significant difference in growth was observed. In conclusion, our data suggest that GCSF has little or no growth-modulatory effect on human ovarian carcinoma in vitro. Therefore, the clinical use of GCSF is unlikely to have a direct effect on tumor growth.