Sensitivity of neoplastic cells to senescence unveiled under standard cell culture conditions

Cancer cells are typically defined as infinitely proliferating, whereas normal cells (except stem cells) are considered as being programmed to become senescent. Our data show that this characterization is misleading.

Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification, TP53 sequencing, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for MUC1 and SCGB2A2 and immunocytochemistry, together with senescence detection assay and real-time microscopic observations were used to analyze primary neoplastic cells isolated from prostate, breast and colorectal tumors, as well as stable cancer cell lines (MCF7, MDA-MB-468, SW962, SK-MEL28, NCI-H1975 and NCI-H469).

In all cases of primary cancer cell cultures, in vitro conditions rapidly revealed senescence in the majority of cells. Two out of six stable cancer cell lines did not exhibit any senescence-associated-β-Galactosidase-positive cells. Interestingly, four cell lines had small sub-populations of senescent cells (single SA-β-Gal-positive cells).

Primary neoplastic cells from different types of cancer (prostate, breast, colon cancer) appear to be senescent in vitro. Apparently, cancer cell lines that have been used for many years in drug-testing analyses have constantly been misleading researchers in terms of the general sensitivity of cancer cells to senescence.