Role of intracellular calcium concentration on tumor cell death from hyperthermia

The intracellular calcium ion concentration of SCK cells was measured after the cells were heated to determine the relationship between thermotolerance and intracellular calcium concentration. SCK cells, which are breast cancer cells that spontaneously arise in A/J mice, were used. Exponentially growing cells were trypsinized and incubated for 60 min with fura-2/AM at a concentration of 10 M. The incubation was carried out at a density of 1x106 cells/ml in serum-free RPMI medium. Thermotolerance was induced by incubating cells for 5 h at 37yC after heating them at 43yC for 30 min. When heated at 44yC in a calcium containing buffer, the intracellular calcium concentration of non-thermotolerant and thermotolerant cells increased continuously as the cells were heated for longer periods of time. The same increase in intracellular calcium concentration was seen in these two cell lines when heated at 43yC in a calcium-free buffer. Thus, our data indicated that intracellular calcium ion increased during heating due to an influx into the cytoplasm from both internal stores and the extracellular medium.