George Mihail MAN
Physical Education and Informatics, University of Pitesti, Romania
Title: Irradiation effects on colon cancer cells autophagy process
Biography
Biography: George Mihail MAN
Abstract
Aim: A quantitative assessment of LC3 expression of autophagy process, in cells from tumoral colorectal tissues was compared from patients with or without preoperative radiotherapy.
Materials and Methods: 50 patients that underwent surgery for colorectal adenocarcinoma, of which 11 received preoperative radiotherapy, were biopsied. After being included in paraffin and sectionated, the tumoral tissue samples were immunomarked for LC3 expression. The influence of preoperative radioterapy was revelated comparing LC3 percentage on 10 randomly selected microscopy fields (with 40× objective) from malignant tissue samples of each patient, assessed with dedicated software. The resulting data were assessed and compared with a statistical apparatus.
Results: The LC3 percentage is different from person to person and the higher it is in normal epithelium, the higher will be in tumoral epithelium of the same person. LC3 was overexpressed in tumoral tissue as compared with normal one. The LC3 expression levels are decreasing from tumoral non-irradiated epithelia to tumoral irradiated epithelia. LC3 expression in tumoral cells is granular, with particular perinuclear disposal and often “annular” pattern.
Conclusions: The study of cancer cells autophagy allows for a more accurate molecular targeted anticancer approach of radiation therapy. Using a quantitative assessment of LC3 protein expression on tumoral colorectal tissues we determined the influence of preoperative radiotherapy on tumoral cells autophagy process. The autophagy process proved to be upregulated in the tumoral cells, with a particular morphological expression, namely the presence of cytoplasmic coarse granules disposed in an “annular” pattern. Preoperative radiotherapy is downregulating the autophagy process both in normal and tumoral tissue but to a lesser extent in the latter.