Establishment of a primary pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma cell line: in vitro responsiveness to some chemotherapeutics.

BACKGROUND: Anaplastic pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma is an aggressively growing, malignant, and eventually fatal tumor of the central nervous system. Testing chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity under in vitro conditions would be a useful strategy to determine sensitive or resistant drugs for fatal brain cancers. OBJECTIVE: To establish primary cell cultures of excised tumor tissue from pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma-bearing patients and to test their sensitivity against various anticancer chemotherapy drugs. METHODS: Prepared suspensions of the excised tumor tissue from a patient who had a recurrent grade 3 pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma was cultured in culture dishes until cells began to grow. Immunofluorescent and immunohistochemical visualizations were performed using confocal and light microscopy. MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay in comparison with ³H-thymidine incorporation assay was used to test cellular toxicity of several anticancer drugs. RESULTS: We established vigorously growing primary cells of the tumor. Drug sensitivity testing was conducted successfully. CONCLUSION: Primary cell cultures of surgically removed tumor tissues may be useful in studies of cancer biology and chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity for recurrent malignant brain tumors, particularly for anaplastic pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma.

[Production of Toxoplasma gondii in Vero cell culture]. / Vero Hücre Kültüründe Toxoplasma gondii Üretimi.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate parasite-host dynamics in cultures of Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii). METHODS: T. gondii tachyzoites were incubated in Vero-E6 cell cultures at 37°C, 5％CO2. Tachyzoites and host cells were characterized by light microscopy. Growth kinetics of the parasite were determined. RESULTS: Doubling time of tachyzoites and viability of host cells were determined by comparing tachyzoite cultures and control Vero cell cultures that were free of parasites. Tachyzoites harvested from cell cultures were established as a line for future studies. Purified tachyzoit line was named as GPK-001, a catalog name for the line. CONCLUSION: In this study, we showed that an intracellular parasite, T. gondii can be produced in cell cultures under sterile conditions. We believe that the tachyzoite line established in this study would be useful in many other studies and provide answers to questions regarding biology and treatment of T. gondii infections.