A lineage-tracing tool to map the fate of hypoxic tumour cells

Bibliographic Details
Title: A lineage-tracing tool to map the fate of hypoxic tumour cells
Authors: Jenny A. F. Vermeer, Jonathan Ient, Bostjan Markelc, Jakob Kaeppler, Lydie M. O. Barbeau, Arjan J. Groot, Ruth J. Muschel, Marc A. Vooijs
Source: Disease Models & Mechanisms, Vol 13, Iss 7 (2020)
Publisher Information: The Company of Biologists, 2020.
Publication Year: 2020
Collection: LCC:Medicine
LCC:Pathology
Subject Terms: hypoxia, lineage tracing, hif, cre recombinase, intravital imaging, nsclc tumour, Medicine, Pathology, RB1-214
More Details: Intratumoural hypoxia is a common characteristic of malignant treatment-resistant cancers. However, hypoxia-modification strategies for the clinic remain elusive. To date, little is known on the behaviour of individual hypoxic tumour cells in their microenvironment. To explore this issue in a spatial and temporally controlled manner, we developed a genetically encoded sensor by fusing the O2-labile hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) protein to eGFP and a tamoxifen-regulated Cre recombinase. Under normoxic conditions, HIF-1α is degraded but, under hypoxia, the HIF-1α-GFP-Cre-ERT2 fusion protein is stabilised and in the presence of tamoxifen activates a tdTomato reporter gene that is constitutively expressed in hypoxic progeny. We visualise the random distribution of hypoxic tumour cells from hypoxic or necrotic regions and vascularised areas using immunofluorescence and intravital microscopy. Once tdTomato expression is induced, it is stable for at least 4 weeks. Using this system, we could show in vivo that the post-hypoxic cells were more proliferative than non-labelled cells. Our results demonstrate that single-cell lineage tracing of hypoxic tumour cells can allow visualisation of their behaviour in living tumours using intravital microscopy. This tool should prove valuable for the study of dissemination and treatment response of post-hypoxic tumour cells in vivo at single-cell resolution. This article has an associated First Person interview with the joint first authors of the paper.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 1754-8403
1754-8411
Relation: http://dmm.biologists.org/content/13/7/dmm044768; https://doaj.org/toc/1754-8403; https://doaj.org/toc/1754-8411
DOI: 10.1242/dmm.044768
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/06c80dc265d14a17aca588930a6cf945
Accession Number: edsdoj.06c80dc265d14a17aca588930a6cf945
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:17548403
17548411
DOI:10.1242/dmm.044768
Published in:Disease Models & Mechanisms
Language:English