Isolation of Fibroblast-Activation Protein-Specific Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts

The current study is to develop a gentle and efficient method for purification of fibroblast-activation protein positive (FAP⁺) cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) from tumor tissues. Fresh tissues were isolated from BALB/c-Nude mice bearing human liver cancer cell line (HepG2), fully minced and separated into three parts, and digested with trypsin digestion and then treated with collagenase type IV once, twice, or thrice, respectively. Finally, the cells were purified by using FAP magnetic beads. The isolated CAFs were grown in culture medium and detected for the surface expression of fibroblast-activation protein (FAP). The number of adherent cells which were obtained by digestion process with twice collagenase type IV digestion was (5.99 ± 0.18) × 10⁴, much more than that with the only once collagenase type IV digestion (2.58 ± 0.41) × 10⁴ (P < 0.0001) and similar to thrice collagenase type IV digestion. The percentage of FAP⁺ CAFs with twice collagenase type IV digestion (38.5%) was higher than that with the only once collagenase type IV digestion (20.0%) and little higher than thrice collagenase type IV digestion (37.5%). The FAP expression of CAFs was quite different from normal fibroblasts (NFs). The fibroblasts isolated by the innovation are with high purity and being in wonderful condition and display the features of CAFs.