The Heterogeneity of Response of PC12 Cells from Different Laboratories to Nerve Growth Factor and Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide Questions the Reproducibility of Studies Carried Out with Tumor Cell Lines

© 2021 S. Karger AG, Basel..

BACKGROUND: PC12 pheochromocytoma tumor cell lines are widely used to decipher the intracellular signaling mechanisms mediating the effects of some growth factors. Nevertheless, the disparity in appearance of some PC12 cell lines used in the different publications questions our ability to compare the results obtained by the numerous laboratories which use them. This led us to analyze the phenotypic aspect and transcriptomic expression of 5 PC12 cell lines from different origins under control conditions and after treatment with nerve growth factor (NGF) or pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP).

METHODS: Characterization of the 5 PC12 cell lines was conducted using imaging techniques and high-throughput real-time PCR combined with bioinformatics analysis.

RESULTS: The results show that the 5 cell lines are very variable in terms of shape, proliferation rate, motility, adhesion to the substrate, and gene expression. This high heterogeneity of the cell lines is also found when looking at their response to NGF or PACAP on gene expression or differentiation, with even in some cases opposite effects, as, for example, on cell proliferation. Actually, only 2 of the cell lines tested exhibited some phenotypic similarities with each other, even though the transcriptomic analyses show that they are far from identical.

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: As this issue of cell heterogenicity is not restricted to PC12 cells, the present results highlight the need to facilitate the supply of cell lines at low cost, the necessity to standardize practices regarding the use of cell lines, and the requirement to define precise markers of established cell lines which should be monitored in every publication. Regarding this latter point, the present data show that transcriptomic analysis by real-time PCR using a panel of genes of interest is easy to implement and provides a reliable method to control the possible drift of the cells over time in culture. Transcriptomic phenotyping combined with bioinformatics analysis can also be a useful approach to predict the response of the cells to treatments in terms of cell signaling activation, which can help to choose among several cell lines the most appropriate one for the investigation of a particular mechanism. Taken together, the results from this study highlight the need to use well-characterized cell lines with standardized protocols to generate reproducible results from 1 laboratory to the other.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:113

Enthalten in:

Neuroendocrinology - 113(2023), 2 vom: 20., Seite 216-230

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Delage, Colombe [VerfasserIn]
Breard-Mellin, Lou [VerfasserIn]
Thérésine, Caroline [VerfasserIn]
Simioneck, Séphora [VerfasserIn]
Lefranc, Benjamin [VerfasserIn]
Leprince, Jérôme [VerfasserIn]
Bénard, Magalie [VerfasserIn]
Vaudry, David [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

9061-61-4
Cell lines
Cell signaling
Differentiation
Journal Article
Nerve Growth Factor
Nerve growth factor
PC12 cell
Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide
Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide
Reproducibility
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Variability

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 14.02.2023

Date Revised 25.02.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1159/000518337

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM328927244