I am culturing cancer stem cells and have a question to the composition of the media. After isolation of a patient with NSCLC and enrichment of the CSCs we now culture them under free-floating serum-free conditions in ultra low attachment flasks. We split them once a week and they grow fine without the addition of EGF and FGF, although everyone seems to use it in CSC culture. We add Heparin to the Sphere Medium (DMEM/F12, L-Glut, Transferrin). I would like to know what the role of EGF and FGF ( or Heparin) is in the media?
Thanks in regard :)
The necessity of growth factors for cancer stem cells depends on the case. i.e. CSCs enriched in spheroids express how much EGFR and FGFR, especially the splicing pattern of FGFR is regulated by epithelial splicing regulatory protein 1/2 (ESRP1/2). ESRP1/2 proteins are involved in EMT process, which increases CSCs in number.
True cancer cells are supposed to be endowed with trophoblastic properties. They have thus a pro-survival self-sufficiency in growth factors. The key question is then to evaluate the autocrine production of the growth factors by the cultured cells.
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