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The feasibility of using dielectrophoresis for isolation of glioblastoma subpopulations with increased stemness
Author(s) -
Alinezhadbalalami Nastaran,
Douglas Temple A.,
Balani Nikita,
Verbridge Scott S.,
Davalos Rafael V.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.201900026
Subject(s) - neurosphere , stem cell , cancer stem cell , nestin , cell sorting , spheroid , stem cell marker , cell culture , dielectrophoresis , biology , glioblastoma , microbiology and biotechnology , cancer research , in vitro , immunology , flow cytometry , neural stem cell , materials science , adult stem cell , nanotechnology , genetics , endothelial stem cell , microfluidics
Abstract Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are aggressive subpopulations with increased stem‐like properties. CSCs are usually resistant to most standard therapies and are responsible for tumor repropagation. Similar to normal stem cells, isolation of CSCs is challenging due to the lack of reliable markers. Antigen‐based sorting of CSCs usually requires staining with multiple markers, making the experiments complicated, expensive, and sometimes unreliable. Here, we study the feasibility of using dielectrophoresis (DEP) for isolation of glioblastoma cells with increased stemness. We culture a glioblastoma cell line in the form of neurospheres as an in vitro model for glioblastoma stem cells. We demonstrate that spheroid forming cells have higher expression of stem cell marker, nestin. Next, we show that dielectric properties of neurospheres change as a result of changing culture conditions. Our results indicate that spheroid forming cells need higher voltages to experience the same DEP force magnitude compared to normal monolayer cultures of glioblastoma cell line. This study confirms the possibility of using DEP to isolate glioblastoma stem cells.