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Updated: Jun 16, 2026
Isolation of Primary Human Colon Tumor Cells from Surgical Tissues and Culturing Them Directly on Soft Elastic Substrates for Traction Cytometry
Published on: June 4, 2015
[Colorectal cancer: tissutal explantation and primary cell culture]
Roberto Spisni1, Alessandra Failli, Giulia Orsini
1Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Università di Pisa, Italia. r.spisni@dc.med.unipi.it
Background:
Setting of cellular cultures extracted from colorectal cancer tissue represents a valid model for in vitro study of biological and molecular characteristics of each single tumor finalized to obtain a tailored chemiotherapy. The end point of this study is to create primary cellular cultures from "fresh" cancer tissue in different stages of evolution.
Methods:
Cancer tissue samples are obtained by means of surgical excisional biopsy or by means of semi-automatic biopsy instrument (Sprig-Cut). After having compared different approaches, two experimental protocols have been selected to have the highest number or intact cells: enzimatic digestion with trypsin and explantation.
Results And Conclusions:
Primary cell culture free of microbic contamination, obtained mainly by means of Spring-Cut methods, underwent immunohistochemical analysis to evaluate what kind of cell have been grown in vitro by measuring the expression of CK20 and GFAP both resulted positive. The possibility of setting a primary cell culture which represents the cancer of each patient allows a pharmacologic and biomolecular study which can contribute to the development of a tailored adjuvant therapy with many advantages for the patient in terms of positive answer to the treatment and reduced toxicity.
