Download Investigating the Influence of Probiotics on Cell Proliferation

Investigating the Influence of Probiotics on Cell Proliferation in Hematological Malignancies
Christos N. Sarantopoulos
Mentor: Martina Berger
Cancer is a group of diseases that is characteristic of unregulated and uncontrollable cell growth. We focused
on the cell proliferation of IM-9 cells which are a multiple myeloma cancer cell line (blood cancer) and
identify the pathways leading to inhibition of cell proliferation. A cell is induced into cell death (Apoptosis)
through two pathways, the Intrinsic Pathway and the Extrinsic Pathway. The Intrinsic Pathway, also known
as the Mitochondrial Pathway, is induced from inside the cell as a response to stress factors such as DNA
damage and loss of cell-survival factors. In literature it can be observed that probiotics have the ability to
inhibit proliferation by affecting the mitochondrial apoptotic pathways. We tested this hypothesis and tried to
stop cancer cell proliferation by experimenting with IM-9 cells and several probiotic bacteria that have
previously been isolated from the saliva of healthy individuals. We identified two of the bacteria that are able
to inhibit cell growth in IM-9 cells. The IM-9 cells were cultured with live bacteria and with the supernatant
of the bacterial culture. IM-9 cells were inhibited by live bacteria, however after several cultures with the same
bacteria IM-9 cells were able to adapt and kill the bacteria. IM-9 cells exposed to supernatant were never able
to adapt to the harmful effects of the supernatant. The supernatant was free of bacteria. At the moment, the
pathway of cell proliferation inhibition in cancer cells in the presence of bacteria and supernatent is not
identified. The mitochondrial pathways of apoptosis will be examined next. We can demonstrate that
bacteria/probiotics can influence cancer cell proliferation and could have tremendous potential in the
regulation of cell proliferation in cancer cells and thus as a cancer treatment.