A Network Biology Approach Identifies Molecular Cross-Talk between Normal Prostate Epithelial and Prostate Carcinoma Cells
Fig 5
Phenotypic analyses of tumour cells in co-culture experiments.
In each panel is shown the phenotypic characteristic of the tumour cells alone (DU145, no insert), the tumour cells in the presence of normal (RWPE1) or tumour cells (DU145). The presence of normal cells are seen to (A) increase the population doubling time (PDT), (B) decrease the total cell number, (C) have no significant effect on apoptosis, (D) decrease the number and (E) size of the cell clusters and (F) increase the number of single cells. Each of these changes shows a normalisation of the phenotypic characteristics of the tumour cells by the presence of the normal cells. In contrast co-culture with DU145 tumour cells is seen to have the opposite effect and to increase the tumour phenotype of the tumour cells. Panel G shows the results of a clonogenic assay performed on two different tumour cell lines (DU145 and PC-1). The figure shows that the addition of 1:50 dilution of culture media, conditioned by over-expressing Slit-2 induce at least 60% reduction in cell survival respect to control cultures.