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Antibiotics inhibit sphere-forming ability in suspension culture

Sébastien Relier1,2,3, Laura Yazdani1,2,3, Oualid Ayad1,2,3

  • 1CNRS, UMR-5203, Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, 34094 Montpellier, France.

Cancer Cell International
|February 16, 2016
PubMed
Abstract

Insights

Penicillin-streptomycin cocktail inhibits colorectal cancer stem cell sphere formation in suspension cultures, impacting self-renewal potential. This suggests caution with routine antibiotic use in cancer research and potential therapeutic applications.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Cell Biology
  • Microbiology

Background:

  • Developing in vivo-like cancer models is crucial for drug and therapy testing.
  • Colorectal cancer research often uses patient biopsies, requiring antibiotics to prevent contamination.
  • Long-term antibiotic use may obscure low-level contamination and alter cancer cell behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of penicillin-streptomycin on cancer cell culture models.
  • To determine if antibiotics affect cancer cell phenotype and self-renewal capabilities.

Main Methods:

  • Tested penicillin-streptomycin in both monolayer and suspension cultures.
  • Utilized six distinct colorectal cancer cell lines.
  • Performed experiments in triplicate and analyzed data using Student's t-test.

Main Results:

  • Penicillin-streptomycin significantly inhibited sphere formation in suspension cultures for all six cell lines.
  • No impact of the antibiotic cocktail was observed in monolayer cultures.
  • A notable decrease in the cancer stem cell pool was correlated with antibiotic treatment.

Conclusions:

  • Systematic addition of antibiotics to growth media warrants reevaluation.
  • Antibiotics may hold potential for targeting cancer stem cells in therapeutic strategies.
Keywords:
AntibioticsCancer stem cellsSphere-forming abilitySuspension culture

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