Enrichment of cancer-initiating cells from colon cancer cells through porous polymeric membranes by a membrane filtration method

Cancer-initiating cells (CICs) or cancer stem cells (CSCs) are primarily responsible for tumor initiation, growth, and metastasis and represent a few percent of the total tumor cell population. We designed a membrane filtration protocol to enrich CICs (CSCs) from the LoVo colon cancer cell line via nylon mesh filter membranes with 11 and 20 mu m pore sizes and poly(lactide-co-glycolic acid)/silk screen (PLGA/silk screen) porous membranes (pore sizes of 20-30 mu m). The colon cancer cell solution was filtered through the membranes to obtain a permeate solution. Subsequently, the cell culture medium was filtered through the membranes to collect the recovery solution where the cells attached to the membranes were rinsed off into the recovery solution. Then, the membranes were cultivated in the cultivation medium to collect the migrated cells from the membranes. The cells migrated from any membrane had higher expression of the CSC surface markers CD44 and CD133, had higher colony formation levels, and produced more carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) than the colon cancer cells cultivated on conventional tissue culture plates (control). We established a method to enrich the CICs (CSCs) of colon cancer cells from migrated cells through porous polymeric membranes by the membrane filtration protocol developed in this study.