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Cell Fusion Between Blood and Brain: Role in Tumor Recurrence
Silvia Espejel, PhD
Research Fellowship 2005 - 2007
University of California - San Francisco, California
Award: In memory of David A. DePaul
Blood cells exit the bloodstream and enter the brain, where they fuse with neurons. Fused cells transfer their genetic material, forming cells with two nuclei. We hypothesize that cell fusion can occur between blood cells and brain tumor cells, and that this phenomenon is induced by radiation, a common treatment for brain tumors. Cell fusion may thus endow tumor cells with a survival advantage and thereby contribute to the high rate of tumor recurrence after radiation treatment. We have demonstrated spontaneous cell fusion of blood macrophages with brain tumor cells in vivo. We inoculated a Cre-expressing astrocytoma cell line into R26R LacZ reporter mice, and then observed LACZ expression in fused cells. Donor astrocytoma cells were harvested from BALB/C mice and transplanted into C57Bl/6 hosts; after fusion, some host macrophages expressed the BALB/C haplotype. In separate experiments, we have also shown that radiation induces cell fusion between blood cells and neurons. We are currently testing whether radiation induces fusion between macrophages and brain tumor cells. Our results suggest that cell fusion could play a role in rescuing malignant cells from radiation damage. These findings could have important implications for cancer treatment.
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