Coprocytobiology: A Technical Review of Cytological Colorectal Cancer Screening in Fecal Samples

This review discusses the field of coprocytobiology, defined as a combined method of cell preservation, isolation, and cytology, which has applications to the investigation of noninvasive fecal screening for colorectal cancer. In the decade since the field was last reviewed, cell isolation has progressed rapidly via the development of technologies such as microfluidic and magnetic cell sorting. The landscape of cytology has also advanced in this time with the emergence of novel cytological methods and cell preservation strategies. Previous reviews present an outdated and incomplete view of coprocytobiology, summarizing a limited number of early publications, ignoring the principle of cell preservation and focusing on a single method of isolation rather than the field as a whole. In contrast to these publications, this review presents an updated, comprehensive, and unbiased representation of the technical aspects of coprocytobiology and provides unique insight into the common methodological pitfalls, best practice, and future directions of cytological screening for colorectal cancer. Graphical Abstract

Potential use of IL-7 and IL-15 for ex vivo generation of LAK.

e15201 Background: A review of scientific literature has shown that IL-2 is most often used for the LAK generation, while the potential of other NK-stimulating interleukin cells remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of IL-7 and IL-15 on ex vivo LAC generation. Methods: A fraction enriched in NK cells was isolated by magnetic cell sorting with the NK Cell Isolation Kit (#130-092-657, Miltenyi Biotec, Germany) from PBMC in 11 patients with stage II-III breast cancer without treatment. Cells were introduced into a 6-well 3x105 plate in RPMI medium (Gibco, USA) supplemented with 10% FBS (Gibco, USA). Cytokines 40 ng/ml were added to the wells in 6 variants: 1) IL-15; 2) IL-2; 3) IL-7; 4) IL-15+IL-7; 5) IL-15+IL-7+IL-2; 6) control without cytokines. Cells were cultured at 5.0% CO2 and 37°C. Cells were counted with a hemocytometer daily for 5 days and on days 8, 9 and 10 of cultivation. Results: The number of NK cells in control samples gradually decreased: by 2 times on day 5 and by 3 times on day 10. On day 5, the number of NK cells was 1.5 times higher than in the control when cultured with IL-2, and 1.4 times higher when cultured with IL-7+IL-15. After 9 days, a statistically significant increase in the number of cells, compared to the control sample, was observed with the addition of IL-2 (1.6 times); IL-15 and IL-7+IL-15 (1.5 times). On day 10, significant differences from the control were found in most samples: the number of cells was higher in samples cultured with IL-2 and IL-7+IL-15 (1.9 times) and with IL-15 and IL-2+IL-7+IL-15 (1.7 times). IL-7 alone led to a gradual decrease in the number of cells, and on days 8, 9 and 10 it was lower than in the control samples. Conclusions: In general, the introduction of cytokines into the samples enriched with NK cells contributed to the preservation of this subpopulation on days 5-10 of cultivation. However, the use of IL-7 and IL-15, both alone and in combination, did not lead to a significant increase in LAK compared to the use of IL-2.

Isolating stem cells from skin: designing a novel highly efficient non-enzymatic approach

Stem cells are undifferentiated elements capable to acquire a specific cellular phenotype under the influence of specific stimuli, thus being involved in tissue integrity and maintenance. In the skin tissue self-renewal and wound healing after injury is a complex process, especially in adulthood, due to the aging process and the continuous exposure to damaging agents. The importance of stem cells in regenerative medicine is well known and defining or improving their isolation methods is therefore a primary and crucial step. In the present paper we present a novel method to isolate stem cells from human skin, including the involvement of a novel medium for the maintenance and expansion of in vitro cultures. The biopsies were mechanically digested and put in culture. The migrating cells were positive selected with magnetic cell sorting, characterized by flow-cytometry analysis, and viability detected by MTT assay. Cells exhibited a mesenchymal phenotype, as demonstrated by the positive acquirement of an osteogenic or adipogenic phenotype when cultured in specific conditioned media. Taken together our results disclose a novel method for culturing and expanding stem cells from skin and pave the way for future clinical applications in tissue regeneration.

Large-scale immuno-magnetic cell sorting of T cells based on a self-designed high-throughput system for potential clinical application

A self-designed high-throughput system has been developed for large-scale immuno-magnetic cell sorting of different T cells.