ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Fluorescence imaging of actin cytoskeleton changes in cancer cells upon chemotherapy

Klementieva NV1, Furman OE1,2, Mishin AS1,3, Lukyanov KA1,3, Zagaynova EV1
About authors

1 Research Institute of Biomedical Technologies,
Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

2 Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod – National Research University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

3 Laboratory of Biophotonics, Department of Genetics and Postgenomic Technologies,
M. M. Shemyakin and Yu. A. Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Correspondence should be addressed: Natalia Klementieva
pl. Minina i Pozharskogo, d. 10/1, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 603005; moc.liamg@aveitnemelkvn

About paper

Funding: this work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 14-25-00129).

Acknowledgements: authors thank the IBCH Core Facility for the equipment.

Received: 2016-08-15 Accepted: 2016-08-25 Published online: 2017-01-05
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Structural organization of actin and actin-binding proteins can be a hallmark of aggressiveness among various populations of solid tumor cells. Here, we studied the impact of chemotherapeutic drugs (paclitaxel and cisplatin) on actin and alpha-actinin structural patterns in human cervical adenocarcinoma cell culture HeLa Kyoto using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and single-molecule localization super-resolution microscopy. It was shown that paclitaxel causes disruption of actin cytoskeleton in cancer cells, both for actin and alpha-actinin. We observed disappearance of stress fibers, accumulation of filaments in the cell cortex and morphological changes in focal contacts. With cisplatin, we detected a lower number of thin actin bundles and more dense arrangement of alpha-actinin. Our results suggest that the actin cytoskeleton is a potential target for antitumor chemotherapy.

Keywords: actin, alpha-actinin, microfilaments, cervical carcinoma cell culture, paclitaxel, cisplatin, fluorescence imaging

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