Morphological Analysis of Amoeboid-Mesenchymal Transition Plasticity After Low and High LET Radiation on Migrating and Invading Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Background/Aim: Cell migration and invasion are fundamental components of tumor cell metastasis that represent the biggest threat to the survival and quality of life of cancer patients. There is clear evidence that ionizing radiation can differently modulate migration and invasiveness of cancer cells depending on the cell lines, the doses and the radiation types investigated. This suggests that motile cells are able to adopt different migration strategies according to their molecular characteristics and external signals. Materials and Methods: In this study, a morphological analysis was performed on pancreatic cancer Aspc-1 cells to evaluate the amoeboid-mesenchymal mobility transition in several experimental conditions considering the role played by factors released by normal and tumor cells, in basal conditions and after low and high Linear Energy Transfer (LET) irradiation. Results and Conclusion: The migratory behavior of Aspc-1 cells is modulated by factors released by normal fibroblasts and tumor cells, and this is in turn modulated by both the radiation dose and the radiation quality.