In vitro study of the effects of DC electric fields on cell activities and gene expression in human choriocarcinoma cells

ABSTRACT

Physiological electric fields (EFs), as one of the environmental cues influencing both normal and tumor cells, have profound effects on tumor cell malignancy potential. The cellular responses to EFs by choriocarcinoma cells and their underlying mechanisms are unknown. In this study, the migration/motility, cell cycle progression and proliferation of choriocarcinoma cells in electric field culture showed that choriocarcinoma cells migrated cathodally in an applied EF, and EF stimulation influenced cell cycle progression through G2/M arrest and therefore induced a reduction in cellular proliferation. The transcriptome of choriocarcinoma cells subjected to EF stimulation (150 mV/mm) was analyzed using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), and the results were verified by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. A Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis revealed that ErbB and HIF-1 signaling pathways that are involved in cell migration/motility, cell cycle progression and proliferation were significantly altered in cells treated with an EF of 150 mV/mm compared with control cells, and in addition, the downstream pathways of these signaling pathways such as AKT and P42/P44 MAPK (ERK1/2) showed primary activation by Western blotting. This study’s results suggest that an applied EF is an effective cue in regulating cellular phenotypes of choriocarcinoma cells and that transcriptional analysis contributes to the understanding of the mechanism of EF-guided cell functions.

KEYWORDS:

• Choriocarcinoma cells
• electric field
• cellular phenotypes
• gene expression
• signal transduction

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Min Zhao, University of California at UC Davis, for his continued support of the study.

Dislosure of Interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China 81471462 (H.B.) and 81271733 (H.B.), Sichuan Province Science and Research foundation of China 2019YFS0316 (H.B.), Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University IRT0935, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,and Research Seed Fund from West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University (H.B.).