Platelets decrease chemotherapy -induced cancer cell damage by increasing cell survival : mechanisms and significance

Abstract

Cancer cells grow without the restraints of feedback control mechanisms that regulate normal tissue or organ growth, such as apoptosis, leading to Increased cancer cell survival. Deregulation of apoptosis has been Implicated In carcinogenesis. Platelets play an Important role in various stages of cancer progression such as anglogenesis. Invasion and metastasis (Jurasz, Alonso- Escolano et al. 2004). Cancer cell survival was affected by platelets. The general objective of my PhD research was to study the role of platelets In chemotherapy-induced cancer cell death and survival. Therefore, the studies focused on the effects of platelets on apoptosis, cell cycle regulation, DNA damage repair, mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways and telomerase activity. Human colonic adenocarcinoma Caco-2 and human ovarian adenocarcinoma 59M cells were incubated with 5-fluorouracil (1 μg/ml - 3000 μg/ml) or paclitaxel (1 μg/ml - 200 μg/ml) in the presence or absence of platelets (1.5 x 10 8/ml) for 1, 24 or 72 hrs.