| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 醫學工程學研究所 === 105 === Background:
Cancer stem cells ( CSCs) are cancer cells referred to have some stem cell capabilities, for example, self-renewal and multi-cellular differentiation. Cancer stem cells are now considered as one of the main causes for cancer metastasis, recurrence, and resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Many scientists have been developing methods to kill cancer stem cells to reduce tumor resistance or metastasis. Metformin, drug for type 2 diabetes, inhibiting cancer stem cell growth was shown in recent cancer research. Malignant melanoma contains cancer stem cells and it can be used to establish a platform for evaluating cancer treatment methods and characterizing cancer stem cells.
Purpose:
To evaluate the effect of Metformin on melanoma cancer stem cells by observing in vitro 3-D cell culture and in vivo murine with optical microscopy.
Materials & Methods:
In vitro experiment, we explored the effect of Metformin on melanoma cancer stem cells using 3D cell culture technique. In the animal experiment, we used a multi-photon imaging microscopy system to evaluate the effect of Metformin in ear melanoma of male C57BL/6-C2J mice.
Results:
The in-vitro results showed that the number of cell spheres was less for a higher concentration of Metformin and the results are similar to the papers published by other groups. In the animal experiment, the preliminary results showed that the signal of cancer stem cells for the treated group is less than the control group after 16 days of treatment.
Conclusion:
The overall results suggested that optical microscopy can be used to observe short-term Metformin treatment inhibiting melanoma cancer stem cells both in vitro and in vivo studies.
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