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How could you explain these results? - cancer cells are weird (Jan/28/2009 )

Hello everyone!

I have been comparing two cells lines for the last couple of months. Done proliferation, migration, transendothelial migration, invasion and colony formation assay. Both are cancer cells and one is more aggressive than the other in everything but colony formation assay.

If they proliferate, migrate and invade more why dont they form more colonies?

What does a colony formation assay tell me then?

A bit puzzled

Also.........if I see different proliferation rates, I should also expect differences in the cell cycle profiles of the cells right?

Ideas or input on this would be awesome, I really dont know how I would explain in a paper why my cells are so unbelievably aggressive in everything but colony formation where the results suddenly go completely the other way



Sounds like the more aggressive line is unable to establish colonies as well as the other but once it does establish the colony it can take off. In an asynchronous population you may not be able to see minute differences in cell cycle profiles but have you compared synchronized populations? How much time does each cell type take to get through each cell cycle phase, S-phase being of high interest. As for the colonies that are formed, is there a difference in size? Perhaps the more aggressive cell line has a much higher rate of DNA damage or mitotic catastrophe and therefore more cells undergo apoptosis in this line. Have you looked by IF at the centrosome status? An abnormal number of centrosomes would support the idea of missegregated genomic DNA and hence mitotic catastrophe. It's a long shot but certainly a potential answer.