| Summary: | Introduction: The role of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) on colorectal cancer (CRC) cells exposed to chemotherapy has not been studied extensively. This thesis investigated whether FGF-2 mediates chemoresistance in primary (SW480) and metastatic (SW620) colon adenocarcinoma cell lines. Methods: Proliferation assays were used to assess the response of SW480 and SW620 colon cancer cell lines to varying concentrations of FGF-2 and to optimise the dose of 5- FU at which 50% cell death was observed. Cell survival assays were performed following 96 hours exposure to 5-FU ± FGF-2. Levels of chemotherapy induced apoptosis were determined using Caspase-3/7 assay. Expression of anti-apoptotic proteins (Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL) and FGFRs at both protein and gene level were determined to see if these contributed to the difference in chemoprotection observed. Results: At 0.25 ng/ml, FGF-2 did not affect proliferation in either cell lines. 25μM of 5-FU resulted in 50% kill in both cell lines. Significant cell survival was observed when FGF-2 (0.25 ng/ml) pre-treated SW620 cells were exposed to 5-FU (25 μM) compared to cells exposed to 5-FU alone (81% vs 60%, p=0.015). This chemoresistance was associated with attenuation of cellular apoptosis (p=0.04) with no significant change in expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL at gene or protein level. This survival advantage was not seen in SW480 cells (59% vs 55%, p=0.35). There were no observed differences in the expression of FGFR1-4 in either cell lines. Conclusion: FGF-2 offers chemoresistance to SW620 and not to SW480 cells exposed to 5-FU. Both cell lines expressed fgf2 and fgfr1-4 genes, suggesting that fgfr expression does not account for the difference in chemoresistance. FGF-2 offered protection by causing significant reduction in chemotherapy induced apoptosis in SW620 colon cancer cell line; however this was not due to increased expression of anti-apoptotic proteins. The molecular mechanisms for this selective chemoprotection need to be investigated further.
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