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6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999 |
A036
Background: Flow cytometric DNA content measurements could be carried out
on cell or nuclei suspension from fresh solid tumor tissue material. The
nuclei of apoptotic cells get lower mass of DNA intercalating propidium
iodid stain than nonapoptotic G1 cells because of the condensed chromatin
structure and DNA loss (originated from internucleosomal fragmentation). The
lower content of DNA stain of apoptotic cells resulted a so called sub G1
population on DNA histogram.
Sandostatin (octreotide, a synthetic analog of somatostatin) is an approved
hormone for treatment of gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors,
however, pancreatic adenocarcinomas have rarely been treated with this drug.
Our aim was to show flow cytometrically the apoptosis-inducing effect of
Sandostatin in vivo in a human pancreatic carcinoma xenograft (PZX-5).
Methods: Experiments were performed on a newly established PZX-5 human
pancreatic carcinoma xenograft growing in immunosuppressed mice (Int J
Pancreatol., 23, 51, 1998.). Mice were treated by 500 microg/kg b.w.
Sandostatin i.p. twice a day. After four weeks the tumours were processed
for microscopic and flow cytometric studies. About 5-10 cubic millimeter
of solid carcinoma tissue were homogenized in physiological salt solution,
then cells were resuspended in 0.1 % of sodium citrate solution suplemented
Results: Nine untreated and eighteen Sandostatin treated tumor samples were
studied. Student t-probe verified a significant (p<0.001) growth of apoptotic
ratio by Sandostatin (from 3.6+1.3% to 7.2+2.2%) among pancreatic carcinoma
cells. These observations were corroborated by histologic examinations of
paraffin embedded samples.
Conclusions: These flow cytometric measurements were useful for showing
apoptotic cells in samples prepared from fresh solid tumors. Data showed
that Sandostatin inhibited the growth of pancreatic carcinoma cells in vivo,
and this process could be attributed to the increased apoptotic activity.
Acknowledgement: The Sandostatin used in this work was kindly given as a
present by Novartis Hungary Kft. Budapest
FLOW CYTOMETRIC MEASUREMENT OF APOPTOSIS FROM FRESH SOLID TISSUE OF
PANCREATIC CARCINOMA XENOGRAFTS TREATED BY SANDOSTATIN (OCTREOTIDE)
Bocsi J, Zalatnai A
First Institute of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research,
Semmelweis University of Medicine, Budapest Hungary