Jadon Sterken
Pronouns:
Research Mentor(s): John Owen
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Otolaryngology / Medicine
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 3 (11:00am – 11:50am)
Authors: Jadon Sterken, John Owen, Steven Chinn, Kimberly Oslin, Mark Prince
Abstract
A significant component of the tumor microenvironment are regions with less oxygen and nutrients, known as hypoxic. These regions form due to the rapid expansion of tumors that become too large for their blood supply and need to go through angiogenesis, meaning that they form new blood vessels. With this in mind, we wanted to look into the subpopulation of cells that thrive in a hypoxic environment. We hypothesized that cancer stem cells would be a part of this population. In order to test this hypothesis, we used cobalt chloride to simulate hypoxic conditions in two different head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. Using known gene expression data we selected a cell line with high expression of HIF1a and CA9(UM-SCC-103) and a cell line with low expression of HIF1a and CA9(UM-SCC-123). The response of both cell lines to various concentrations of cobalt chloride was measured and compared. To analyze the stem cell populations under hypoxic conditions, flow cytometry was utilized to identify cells with the known stem cell markers CD44 and ALDH.
