Institute of Immunology, Center for Biomedical Education and Research (ZBAF), Witten/Herdecke University, Stockumer Str. 10, 58453 Witten, Germany.
Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr University Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 May 23;25(11):5668. doi: 10.3390/ijms25115668.
Cell fusion is a biological process that is crucial for the development and homeostasis of different tissues, but it is also pathophysiologically associated with tumor progression and malignancy. The investigation of cell fusion processes is difficult because there is no standardized marker. Many studies therefore use different systems to observe and quantify cell fusion in vitro and in vivo. The comparability of the results must be critically questioned, because both the experimental procedure and the assays differ between studies. The comparability of the fluorescence-based fluorescence double reporter (FDR) and dual split protein (DSP) assay was investigated as part of this study, in which general conditions were kept largely constant. In order to be able to induce both a high and a low cell fusion rate, M13SV1 breast epithelial cells were modified with regard to the expression level of the fusogenic protein Syncytin-1 and its receptor ASCT2 and were co-cultivated for 72 h with different breast cancer cell lines. A high number of fused cells was found in co-cultures with Syncytin-1-overexpressing M13SV1 cells, but differences between the assays were also observed. This shows that the quantification of cell fusion events in particular is highly dependent on the assay selected, but the influence of fusogenic proteins can be visualized very well.
细胞融合是一种对不同组织的发育和稳态至关重要的生物学过程,但它也与肿瘤进展和恶性有关。细胞融合过程的研究很困难,因为没有标准化的标记物。因此,许多研究使用不同的系统来观察和量化体外和体内的细胞融合。由于研究之间的实验程序和测定方法存在差异,必须对结果的可比性进行严格质疑。荧光双报告(FDR)和双分裂蛋白(DSP)测定法的荧光基于测定法的可比性是本研究的一部分,其中一般条件保持基本不变。为了能够诱导高融合率和低融合率,M13SV1 乳腺上皮细胞在融合蛋白 Syncytin-1 及其受体 ASCT2 的表达水平方面进行了修饰,并与不同的乳腺癌细胞系共培养了 72 小时。在与过表达 Syncytin-1 的 M13SV1 细胞共培养中发现了大量融合细胞,但在测定方法之间也观察到了差异。这表明细胞融合事件的定量特别高度依赖于所选的测定方法,但可以很好地可视化融合蛋白的影响。