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Effect of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) on Hodgkin lymphoma cell lines
Ingrid Glimelius1, Jenny Rubin, Marie Fischer
1Department of Radiology, Oncology and Radiation Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Ingrid.Glimelius@onkologi.uu.se
Objective:
In Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), tumor eosinophilia indicates poor prognosis, probably caused by eosinophil-induced stimulation of tumor cells. Our aim was to investigate the effects of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) on HL tumor cells in vitro.
Materials And Methods:
A fluorometric microculture cytotoxicity assay was used to measure the survival index of cells from the HL cell lines: HDLM-2 (T-cell origin, nodular sclerosis histology), KMH2 (B-cell origin, mixed cellularity), and L428 (B-cell origin, nodular sclerosis) after incubation with ECP97arg variants with different glycosylations and with ECP97thr. Flow cytometry monitored the effects of ECP on markers of cell death.
Results:
For KMH2 and L428, ECP was cytotoxic with a dose-response relationship similar to a previously investigated small-cell lung cancer cell line. HDLM-2 was more sensitive to ECP at low concentrations, but reached a plateau (survival index of 70%) at 0.018 μM. The IC(50) for KMH2 and L428 were 0.2 and 0.15 μM, respectively. The IC(50) was never reached for HDLM-2. All tested ECP variants displayed similar activity in HDLM-2, in contrast to KMH2 and L428, which were more sensitive to less glycosylated ECP. Positive DNA staining (propidium iodide) of HDLM-2 cells treated with ECP indicated cell death by necrosis.
Conclusions:
ECP is cytotoxic for HL tumor cells even at low concentrations, but heterogeneity between cell lines exists and not all tumor cells are eradicated. Two cell lines of B-cell origin, KMH2 and L428, were sensitive to ECP in a dose-response manner, but for HDLM-2, which is of T-cell origin, the cytotoxicity reached a plateau.
