In Vitro Evaluation of Anticancer Drugs with Kinetic and Static Alternating Cell Culture System

Variable bioreactors have been developed for the evaluation of anti-cancer drug efficacy. The Kinetic and Static Alternating Cell Culture System (KSACCS) combines the advantages of kinetic bioreactors and static cultures to improve cell growth by providing adequate metabolic support while minimizing shear-stress. In the current studies, the KSACCS in the ZYX Bioreactor could significantly increase the sensitivity of lung cancer cells (PLS008) and leukemia cells (HL60) to anticancer drugs Cisplatin and 5-FU by accelerating the apoptosis of cancer cells. It was also shown that excessive agitation of the cells could lead to severe cell damage, which resulted in a diminished sensitivity of anticancer drug evaluation, and co-culture systems tend to reduce the sensitivity of anticancer drug evaluation although it might better mimic in vivo conditions.


Introduction
Rapid and accurate evaluation of anti-cancer drug efficacy is particularly important for anticancer drug screening for cancer patients who will undergo chemotherapy and for the research and development of anticancer medicine.Many efforts have been devoted to the development of in vitro culture systems that more effectively mimic the in vivo environment [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].Currently, several in vitro culture systems or in vivo animal models are the primary tools used to test cancer cell responses to drugs [3] [4] [5].However, drug sensitivity data ob-tumor with physical support and cytokines, both of which contribute significantly to cancer cell proliferation [14] [17].Therefore, different cells are required to build an appropriate microenvironment for tumor cell growth.The gradient osmosis perfusion system of the ZYX bioreactor [15] provides the ideal conditions for cell co-culture in our pilot experiment with cancer cells.This study also demonstrated the advantages of the ZYX bioreactor in co-culture by mimicking human tissue and further provided a firm basis for the application of the ZYX bioreactor to potentially increase the accuracy and efficiency of anti-cancer drug evaluation.

Characterization of the Advantages of the ZYX Bioreactor Technologies in Anti-Cancer Drug Screening
Cancer cells used in this project included suspension cell lines: HL-60, and solid cancer cell lines: MCF-7, PC-3, PA-1, and HeLa S3 as well as small cell lung cancer primary cells.Human carcinomas of breast (MCF-7), prostate (PC-3), ovary (PA-1) and cervix (HeLa S3) as well as Leukemia HL-60 were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection.Primary human cancer cells (small cell lung cancer, [PLS008]) [15] were from the ZYX Biotech company.HeLa S3 cells were grown in DMEM.MCF-7 cells were grown in Eagle's MEM supplemented with 10 μg/μL insulin.PC-3 cells were grown in Ham's medium/nutrient mixture F-12.PA-1 was grown in DMEM/F-12.HL-60 and PLS008 were cultured in IMDM (ATCC30-2005).All media were supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum except for HL-60 cells which were cultured in 20% FBS.Cells were seeded in 10 ml gas permeable cell culture bags for ZYX bioreactor cultures or conventional static cultures with 6-well plates at the following densities: PLS008 cells at 1 × 10 5 /ml, HeLa and MCF-7 cells at 1 × 10 5 /ml, PC-3 cells at 2 × 10 4 /ml, PA-1 cells at 2.5 × 10 4 /ml, and HL-60 cells at 1x10 5 /ml.On culture day 6, all adherent cells were trypsinized using a standard procedure prior to analysis whereas suspension cells were analyzed directly.All culture media contained 100 U/mL penicillin, and 100 µg/mL streptomycin (pH 7.2) (Gibco-BRL, Germany).

Analysis of the Effects of Agitation on the Evaluation of Anti-Cancer Drugs
5 different programs (K0, K1, K2, K3 and Kf) of ZYX Bioreactors were used to provide different ratios between static and kinetic states.In these programs, Kf was a purely kinetic culture setting in which the bioreactor was constantly rotated and K0 provided a static control in which cultures were not rotated during the culture.For the programs K1, K2 and K3, cultures were vertically rotated once, twice, or three times every 24 hours, respectively.Rotation times started Y. X.  [25]).The ratios of treated/untreated control were used in the statistical analysis for the evaluation of anti-cancer drug efficacy.

Establishing Dose-Response Relationships between Cancer Cell Lines and Known Effective Anti-Cancer Agents
5 different dosages (0, 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 µmol/L) for Cisplatin and 5FU were applied to PLS008.The efficacy of Cisplatin was evaluated by MTT assay, cell counting and cell apoptosis assessment as described above.In comparison with static culture, a lower dosage of anti-cancer drug or/and a more cancer cell growth inhibition would indicate a higher sensitivity imparted by the ZYX 3D culture system.

Establishing a Co-Culture Model to Mimic the Tumor Growth Microenvironment
Fibroblasts [17] [26] with 6 mm-diameter cell carriers were co-cultured with HL60, in which the media contained human recombinant fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9, 10 ng/ml) (R & D Systems, Minneapolis, MI).Two weeks later, suspension cells were harvested and viable cells were assessed as described above.Cultures were grouped based on the application of fibroblasts and the addition of Cisplatin and 5FU.Each group contained 4 cultures.

Analysis of the Efficiency, Sensitivity, and Reproducibility of Anti-Cancer Drug Evaluation
Efficiency was evaluated by measuring the rate of response to the anti-cancer drug (greatest response over the shortest culture incubation time in which anti-cancer drug efficacy could be determined).Sensitivity was evaluated by comparing different culture methods at the same concentration of the drug that showed efficacy.This could also be used to compare the relative effectiveness of various drugs.Reproducibility was evaluated by comparing the coefficients of variation between the cultures with the selected ZYX Bioreactor program and traditional static cultures.

Statistics Analysis
ANOVA and Student t-test were used for comparison of means, including those for cell number and their percentages.Reproducibility was evaluated with coefficient of variations (CV = standard deviation/mean × %).P < 0.05 was considered as significant.

Increased Proliferation of Cancer Cells in the ZYX Bioreactor
Human breast (MCF-7), prostate (PC-3), ovary (PA-1), cervix (HeLa S3), Leukemia HL-60 and lung cancer cells (PLS008) were cultured at proper seeding densities.On culture day 6, all adherent cells were trypsinized using standard procedure prior to analysis whereas suspension cells were analyzed directly.ZYX Bioreactors with program K2 were compared to six well plates as the static culture controls.Figure 1 shows that all cancer cells grew significantly faster in the ZYX bioreactor than in 2D static culture (P < 0.01, n = 4/each condition).), prostate (PC-3), ovary (PA-1), cervix (HeLa S3), Leukemia HL-60 and lung cancer cells (PLS008) were cultured at proper seeding densities, and on culture day 6, all adherent cells were trypsinized using standard procedures prior to analysis whereas suspension cells were analyzed directly.Cultures from ZYX Bioreactors with the program K2 were compared to used as the static culture controls grown in six well plates.Figure 1 shows that all cancer cells grew significantly faster in the ZYX bioreactor than in 2D static culture (P < 0.01, n = 4).less) but showed the same trends as Annexin V (data not shown).

Dose-Effect Relationship of Anticancer Drugs in ZYX Bioreactor Cultures
Lung cancer cells PLS008 were used for the evaluation of dose-effect relationship in responses to cisplatin and 5FU.As the dose (concentration) of anticancer drug increased, the lung cancer cell number significantly reduced, and the cell number change was negatively correlated (P < 0.01, R = −0.82) to the anticancer dose (concentration).When the data was analyzed in semi-Log, the curves were more linearized.Increasing drug dose appeared to cause a logarithmic drop in cell numbers (Figure 3(b)).The significant difference between Cisplatin and 5FU can be seen at 1 µmol/L in the culture with ZYX bioreactor program K2 but such a difference can be seen on day 6 in the static culture (program K0).5FU displayed a greater effect on culture cell numbers than Cisplatin under programs K1, K2, and K3 but not K0 and Kf.This difference was more clearly  Figure 4. Effects of different Bioreactor programs on the sensitivity of cancer cells to anticancer drugs.Five different ZYX bioreactor programs were used for the culture of PLS008 and HL-60 cells with Cisplatin, 5FU or a no-drug control.Program K0 is for a static culture, K1 is for 1 unit (5 minutes, once per day) of kinetic culture per day and increases the length of the kinetic culture unit with increasing cell density, K2 is for 2-units (5 minutes, twice per day) of kinetic culture per day and increases the length of the kinetic culture unit with increasing cell density, K3 is for 3-unit (5 minutes, 3 times per day) kinetic culture per day and increases the length of the kinetic culture unit with increasing cell density, and Kf is for a completely kinetic culture.For the culture without anti-cancer drugs, cell densities increased as the kinetic portion of the culture did, starting with K0 and reaching a peak level with program K2.From that point densities declined rapidly ((a)-(c)).The differences between adjacent programs are significant (P < 0.01).Partial kinetic cultures (K1, K2, and K3) also exhibited significant differences between Cisplatin and 5FU (P < 0.05 -0.01), but purely static (K0) and purely kinetic cultures (Kf) did not ((b) and (d)). .Flow cytometric analysis revealed similar levels of early apoptotic cells (13.6% -25.3% Annexin V-positive) and dead cells (7.9% -14.8% PI-positive)

Decreased Sensitivity to Anticancer Drugs in HL60 Cells Co-Cultured with Fibroblasts
Co-culturing cancer cells with supporting cells provides them with a test environment more similar to in-vivo conditions.Fibroblast support cell cultures were grown to 80% confluence.At that point, all media was removed and HL60 cells were added in media containing either 5FU or Cisplatin.Figure 5 shows that co-cultured HL60 cells were significantly less sensitive to both 5FU and Cisplatin than cultures without supporting cells from day 4 to day 8.Moreover, there was a significant differences between cell numbers in Cisplatin and 5FU cultures without supporting cells on days 4, 6 and 8, but this difference can only seen on the days 6 and 8 in the co-cultured cells.
Figure 5. Effects of supporting cells on the sensitivity of cancer cells to anticancer drugs.HL60 cells cultured in media containing anti-cancer drugs Cisplatin and 5FU exhibited a decline in cell density over the course of the culture.Cultures with both drugs exhibited a significantly smaller decline from day 4 to day 8 when the cells were seeded with 80% confluent fibroblasts (P < 0.05 -0.01).A significant difference could be observed between Cisplatin and 5FU in the co-cultures at day 6 and day 8, and in the culture without supporting fibroblasts at day 4 through day 8.

Evaluation of the Reproducibility of ZYX Bioreactor Programmed Cell Culture in Testing the Sensitivity of Anticancer Drugs
The coefficients of variation (CV) from 56 pairs of tests (each test has 4 observations, total 448 observations) with the static culture and ZYX Bioreactor programmed cultures were compared and the difference of CVs between these two culture methods was not significant (P > 0.5), indicating that the reproducibility of ZYX Bioreactor programmed cell culture is similar to static culture (Figure 6).

Discussion
Most anti-cancer drugs works more efficiently on faster proliferating cancer cells and cancer cells can grow faster under more suitable culture conditions.Thus, improving the cell growth conditions could make the evaluation of drug efficacy more efficient.
In this study, we showed that culture conditions with alternating kinetic and static phases could be more favorable for cancer cell growth.ZYX bioreactor program K2 provided the most favorable conditions tested for the lung cancer cell line PLS008 and the leukemia cell line HL60.Four other cell lines were also cultured using this program in comparison with conventional static cultures and all showed improved proliferation under program K2.
Cisplatin is clinically used for the chemotherapy of small cell lung cancer [18] [19] [20] and 5FU was approved by the FDA for the treatment of leukemia [21] [22] [23] [24] [26].These two anti-cancer drugs exhibited clear cytotoxicity in cultures of either the PLS008 lung cancer cell line or the HL60 leukemia cell line.
From the data in Figure 2, it can be seen that Cisplatin is more toxic to PLs008 and 5FU is more toxic to HL60, and the cells cultured in the ZYX bioreactor with the program K2 responded to anti-cancer drugs 4 days earlier and more intensely (greater decrease in live cell numbers and higher proportion of cells entering apoptosis).Moreover cultures grown with the program K2 could be used to effectively differentiate between the efficacy of Cisplatin vs. 5FU significantly better than cultures grown under static conditions.These data suggested that kinetic/static alternating cultures could reduce test time and amplify the sensitivity of the evaluation of anti-cancer drug efficacy.Figure 2 also showed that the anti-cancer effects of Cisplatin and 5FU could be seen in 48 hours (Figure 2(a) and Figure 2(d)) and that significant differences between Cisplatin and 5FU could be seen in less than 4 days in K2 cultures but this difference was not apparent earlier than day 8 with static cultures (Figure 2 The induction of cancer cell apoptosis is one of the mechanisms of action anti-cancer drugs [27]- [32].The current study demonstrates that the proper ZYX bioreactor program can enhance the effects of anti-cancer drugs on cancer cells by increasing apoptosis, as shown by a more rapidly increase in Annexin V-positive and PI-positive cells. The window for observing the dose-effect relationship between anti-cancer drugs and in vitro cultured cancer cells is relatively narrow since the toxicity of the drug often leads the cells death in the early stages of the culture.For this reason, most of the tests in the current study were limited to 8 days.As shown in Figure 3, even at 1 µmol/L of Cisplatin or 5FU caused a sharp drop in the number of live lung cancer cells.The two drugs had significantly different efficacy which was clearly exhibited at all tested doses in cultures grown in the ZYX bioreactor with program K2 but not in static cultures (Figure 3(b)).
ZYX Bioreactor is a programmable automatic cell culture system with many internal programs.These programs can determine various culture parameters including the kinetic/static status.To test if increasing the kinetic portion of the culture could further elevate the efficiency of the evaluation of anti-cancer drugs, 5 different programs were selected.These ranged from completely static (K0) to completely kinetic (Kf) and were applied in the experiment as shown in Figure 4.The program K2 was found to be optimal in non-treatment control cultures as described above.This program was also best at differentiating between the effectiveness of Cisplatin and 5FU on cancer cell cultures (Figure 4(b) and Figure 4(d)), suggesting that the ZYX bioreactor can be used to optimize culture conditions and improve the sensitivity of such drug evaluations.
Flow cytometric analysis revealed that apoptotic Annexin V and PI-positive cells greatly increased in cancer cell cultures with program K3, which has a greater kinetic portion, and Kf, which is a purely kinetic program.This effect was evident in both untreated cultures and anti-cancer drug treated cultures.This is consistent with earlier findings which reported that ceaseless kinetic cultures resulted in damage to cell membranes and organelles and stimulated the nonspecific differentiation of stem cells due to the continuous shear-stress on the cells [7] [15].Therefore, it is possible that the decreased sensitivity of anti-cancer drug evaluation and decline in untreated cell proliferation in cultures with a greater kinetic portion resulted from cell damage caused by excessive shear-stress.
Co-cultures with human tissues or human cells provide the cells with a more in-vivo-like growth environment, and may more reliably reflect bona fide effects of anti-cancer drug on cancer cells [12] [17] [20].HL-60 is a leukemia cell line, which was originally supported by fibroblasts and mesenchymal cells in bone marrow.These supporting cells are biologically similar.When HL-60 cells were co-cultured with fibroblasts, the toxicity of anti-cancer drugs to the cancer cells was reduced and the sensitivity of the test was decreased, although co-cultured cells grown using the ZYX bioreactor program K2 might still perform better than static mono-cultures and could differentiate between Cisplatin and 5FU in 6 days compared to 8 days for static cultures (Figure 2 and Figure 5).Larger dose of drug or extended cultures may improve the effectiveness of anti-cancer drug test in co-cultures.
Coefficient of variation is often used to assess repeatability and reproducibility when replicate measurements by each method are available [33] [34].Although the sensitivity of anticancer drug evaluation in cultures with the kinetic and static alternating program K2 in the ZYX Bioreactor is significantly greater than that of static cultures, these two methods exhibit similar mean coefficients of variation, suggestive of reliable reproducibility of tests comparing these culture systems.

Conclusion
Kinetic and static alternating cell culture could significantly increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to anticancer drugs, in which the accelerated apoptosis of cancer cells were involved.The excessive agitation of the cells could lead to severe cell damage, which resulted in a diminished sensitivity of anticancer drug evaluation.The co-culture systems might better mimic in vivo conditions but tend to reduce the sensitivity of anticancer drug evaluation.

Figure 1 .
Figure1.Improved growth of cancer cells in ZYX bioreactor.Human breast (MCF-7), prostate (PC-3), ovary (PA-1), cervix (HeLa S3), Leukemia HL-60 and lung cancer cells (PLS008) were cultured at proper seeding densities, and on culture day 6, all adherent cells were trypsinized using standard procedures prior to analysis whereas suspension cells were analyzed directly.Cultures from ZYX Bioreactors with the program K2 were compared to used as the static culture controls grown in six well plates.Figure1shows that all cancer cells grew significantly faster in the ZYX bioreactor than in 2D static culture (P < 0.01, n = 4).

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Increased effects of anti-cancer drugs on cancer cells in the ZYX bioreactor.PLS008 lung cancer cells ((a)-(c)) and HL-60 Leukemia cells ((d)-(f)) were treated with 10 µmol/L cisplatin or 10 µmol/L 5FU in static cultures and in ZYX bioreactors for 7 days.24 hours after culture initiation, viable cells were assessed by MTT assay, counted with Trypan Blue dye exclusion and analyzed by flow cytometry (count, PI staining for viability and Annexin V staining for identification of early stage apoptosis).(a), (b), (d) and (e) respectively show changes in cell numbers at collection and cell number percent change (cell density at sample collection time point/cell seeding density x100%).Cells grew faster ((a) and (d)) and were more sensitive to anticancer drugs in ZYX bioreactor with program K2 ((b) and (e)) compared to static cultures with program K0.The percentage of Annexin V-plus cells drug-treated program K2 increased significantly faster than in static culture (P < 0.05 -0.01).Both cell types exhibited a significant difference (P < 0.05 -0.01) in the reduction of cell numbers by Cisplatin compared to 5FU from day 4 through day 8 ((b)and (e)) in the cultures with program K2 while Static cultures only demonstrated a significant difference between the effect of the two drugs at day 8.The percentage of Annexin V-positive cells in kinetic cultures increased faster than that of static cultures ((c) and (f)).Annexin V in the static control cultures without anti-cancer drug only slightly increased with levels significantly lower than the cultures with anticancer drug on day 8.
ZYX bioreactor program K2 is favorable for testing sensitivity to anticancer drugs.To further confirm if this advantage is unique to this program, five different ZYX bioreactor programs were used to examine the effects of anticancer drugs (10 µmol/L each) on cultured cell numbers.The kinetic portion of cultures gradually increased from completely static (K0) to completely kinetic (Kf).As shown in Figure4, PLS008 lung cancer cells (Figure4(a) and Figure4(b)) and HL60 leukemia cells (Figure4(c) and Figure4(d)) proliferated significantly more under program K2 than they did under program K0 (P < 0.01) in the culture without anticancer drugs (non-treatment).Unexpectedly, the growth of both cells sharply decreased from program K2 to Kf (P < 0.01), suggesting that kinetic program K2 provides the most suitable culture condition for the proliferation of these two types of cells.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Dose-effect relationship of Cisplatin and 5FU in lung cancer cell PLS008.PLS008 cells were cultured with 0, 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 µmol/L Cisplatin or 5FU for 8 days, the dose-effect curves were plotted directly (a) or in semi-Log (b).Compared to (a), the dose-effect curves in (b) are more linearized and show PLS008 was more sensitive to the increasing concentrations of both Cisplatin and 5-FU (P < 0.05 -0.01).

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Comparison of reproducibility between static culture (K0) and the culture with peak ZYX Bioreactor program (K2).The coefficients of variation (CV) from 56 pairs of tests (each test has 4 observations) with the culture program K0 and K2 were compared and the difference between these two culture methods was not significant (P > 0.5).
[20] and increased gradually and automatically as the cell expansion fold increased until they reaches Kf level.Small cell lung cancer cells (PLS008) alone and with Cisplatin[18][19][20]were used in the tests, and each group was tested four times.At the end of each test, viable cells were assessed by MTT assay and counted by Trypan Blue dye exclusion and flow cytometry (Pro- Zhang et al.DOI: 10.4236/jct.2017.89074848 Journal of Cancer Therapy with 5 minutes Zhang et al.