Real-time Analysis of Impedance Alterations by the Effects of Vanadium Pentoxide on Several Carcinoma Cell Lines

Vanadium compounds have various pharmacologic effects and all available evidence reveals that the effects of vanadium compounds depend on many factors, mainly on the type of cells and dose. The proapoptotic or antiapoptotic effect of vanadium compounds depends strongly on the cell type.

In this study, the effects of vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) were investigated using several tumor cell lines: a colorectal cancer cell line (Colo-205), a human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7), and a normal human fibroblast cell line. Five different concentrations of V₂O₅ between 25-200 µM were applied on the cells and xCELLigence real-time cell analysis was conducted to evaluate the impedance alterations. This study is the first to show V₂O₅'s effects on Colo-205 and MCF-7 and human fibroblast cell lines in a real-time manner.

In the Colo-205 cell line, cell index (CI) alterations decreased slightly at 25 µM and 50 µM, and increased at 100 µM, 150 µM and 200 µM concentrations. In the MCF-7 cell line, CI alterations increased at all concentrations compared with the untreated control. However, in the healthy fibroblast cell line, the CI alterations decreased at all concentrations compared with the untreated control, which limits the use of V₂O₅ for its cytotoxic effect in vivo.

The combination of conventional anticancer drugs can be used to increase the effectiveness and reduce the adverse effects of these drugs considering stages of cancer and cancer type. Our results suggest that V₂O₅ has disparate effects on several cancer cells at different concentrations.