Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Models concerning tumor external environment mainly concentrated on laboratory two-dimensional culture and in vitro animal experiment, which lack of three-dimensional stereo.

OBJECTIVE: To establish in vitro bone metastasis stereo models of human prostate carcinoma, and to investigate the effect of stem cells on proliferation rate and clustering size of prostate carcinoma cells.

METHODS: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) were extracted from 2 clean grade SD rats. Alginate was used to simulate medullary microenvironment, where prostate carcinoma cells and BMMSCs were co-culturedd. Growth of the cells in the three-dimensional model was observed through microscope and histological sections. The carcinoma cells were transfected with green fluorescent protein. The proliferation of monoclonal cells clustering was observed under light microscope and fluorescence microscope. 

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In the co-culture group, the clustering speed, clustering amount and tumor formation rate were greater that those of the control group. The monoclonal cells clustering was formed at 7.75 days and 6.00 days in the control and co-culture groups, respectively, with cell counts of (95.13±11.63) and (112.53±14.67) after 10 days. The formation rate of fluorescent cell clones was (77.10±6.85)% in the control group and (64.55±6.21)% in the co-culture group, the difference had significance. The results suggested that: the alginate microenvironment is conductive to proliferation and clustering of prostate carcinoma cells and BMMSCs.