Open AccessLong-Term Sphere Culture Cannot Maintain a High Ratio of Cancer Stem Cells: A Mathematical Model and Experiment
Author(s) -
Peng Tang,
Qiang Ma,
Zhenning Tang,
Kaifa Wang,
Jun Jiang
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0025518
Subject(s) - term (time) , flow cytometry , stem cell , cancer stem cell , cancer , cell culture , biology , physics , chemistry , cancer research , microbiology and biotechnology , immunology , genetics , quantum mechanics
Acquiring abundant and high-purity cancer stem cells (CSCs) is an important prerequisite for CSC research. At present, researchers usually gain high-purity CSCs through flow cytometry sorting and expand them by short-term sphere culture. However, it is still uncertain whether we can amplify high-purity CSCs through long-term sphere culture. We have proposed a mathematical model using ordinary differential equations to derive the continuous variation of the CSC ratio in long-term sphere culture and estimated the model parameters based on a long-term sphere culture of MCF-7 stem cells. We found that the CSC ratio in long-term sphere culture presented as gradually decreased drift and might be stable at a lower level. Furthermore, we found that fitted model parameters could explain the main growth pattern of CSCs and differentiated cancer cells in long-term sphere culture.