Hypoxia Mediated Selection in Breast Cancer

Understanding the consequences of tumor hypoxia has importance to both basic and applied cancer research. Using green fluorescent protein expressed ductal carcinoma in situ cells (cells of relatively less invasive natural among other types of breast cancer) kept in buffered and glucose rich media; cells were cultured under hypoxic conditions. Each day for ten days, one tissue culture dish is removed and counted for viability, toxicity, pH, and total cell count. These counts are then compared to a control kept in the incubator. Once 20% of the original sample remained viable, the cells were returned to normoxia and allowed to reach 80-90% confluence. New cultures are passaged from the hypoxia treated cell line and the experiment is repeated. Thus, Extreme physical environments such as anoxia will select cells that are resistant to apoptosis (programmed cell death) and the mechanism of resistance will be different in differing cell lineages. These lineages can therefore be compared for survival and proliferation