Editing genomic DNA in cancer cells with high genetic variance: benefit or risk?

The generation of stably-transfected cell lines is a common and very important technology in cancer science. Considerable knowledge in the field of life sciences has been gained through the modification of the genetic code. However, there is a risk in evaluating exogenous gene function through editing genomic DNA in a cancer cell with high genetic variance. In the present study, we showed that genomic DNA status should be considered when evaluating the exogenous gene function in a cancer cell line with high variant genome through stable transfection technology, immunostaining, wound healing assay, transwell invasion assay, real-time PCR, western blot and karyotyping analysis. Our results showed that the S100P expression level was not related to the migration and invasion abilities in these stably transfected cell lines derived from a human salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma cell line SACC-83. The MMP expression pattern was detected by western blot analysis which matched the biological behaviors in these cells. The genomic analysis showed that SACC-83 presented hypotetraploid karyotyping with high variance. Our data indicated that establishment of stable transgenic cancer cell lines should consider the status of genetic variance in a cancer cell to avoid any biased conclusion.