Extracellular membrane vesicles derived from the endosomal compartments and released by the fusion of the multivesicular bodies with the cell membrane are referred as exosomes (Exo) . They function as mediators of intercellular communication and are employed by the organism in the re ...
RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful approach for silencing oncogenes; however, in vivo RNAi delivery has remained a major challenge due to lack of safe, efficient, and sustained delivery. Here, we describe a novel approach to overcome these limitations using mesoporous silicon particl ...
Lipoproteins are natural nanosized delivery vehicles within the circulatory system of all mammals. Scientists have long been interested in utilizing these endogenous macromolecules to transport exogenous imaging or therapeutic agents to specific cells or tissues in the body. T ...
RNA interference (RNAi) is a naturally occurring, powerful mechanism for gene silencing, based on the cleavage of a given target mRNA. It relies on small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in the cell. Being similar in structure, microRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression which ma ...
Tumor-specific drug delivery represents a challenging issue that restricts the clinical applications of many advanced anticancer therapeutics. Ovarian cancer exhibits a quite specific pattern of dissemination: it spreads primarily within the peritoneal cavity, providi ...
Syngeneic and transgenic mouse models are important tools for the study of the biology of cancer. While syngeneic mouse models are generated through the implantation in host animals of tumor cells from genetically and immunologically compatible donors, transgenic mouse models are en ...
One of the difficulties in studying ovarian cancer historically has been the lack of a suitable animal model that replicates the human disease. Mouse models that utilize intraperitoneal implantation of tumorigenic cells lack interaction between the transformed ovarian epithel ...
An in vitro syngeneic model of neoplastic progression of murine ovarian surface epithelial (MOSE) cells represents a valid and significant model that allows for investigations into early mechanisms that impact tumorigenesis. Importantly, MOSE cells representing different s ...
Success in in vitro transformation of primary cells from the human ovarian surface epithelium (OSE) has provided significant insight to the study of human ovarian cancer. Here, we describe the method used to immortalize and transform OSE by serial introduction of viral and nonviral genetic ...
Ovarian cancer is a complex disease, with unclear origins, complicated, multistep tumorigenesis, and variable outcomes. As such, generating experimental models to study the disease and treatment efficacies has proven to be extremely challenging. A number of studies have utilized m ...
Ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSCs) are in a transitional phase between epithelial and mesenchymal cell stages. Consequently, OCSCs possess a high degree of plasticity that complicates their identification and characterization. However, we recently demonstrated that the combi ...
Anoikis, a form of programmed cell death that occurs due to cell detachment from the extracellular matrix, is a critical mechanism in preventing ectopic cell growth. Acquisition of resistance to anoikis is a prerequisite for epithelial ovarian cancer cells to survive in ascitic fluids bef ...
The concept of cancer stem cells (CSCs) provides a new paradigm for understanding cancer biology. Cancer stem cells are defined as a minority of cancer cells with stem cell properties responsible for maintenance and growth of tumors. The targeting of CSCs is a potential therapeutic strategy to ...
We have refined the technique for isolating and propagating cultures of primary epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells derived from solid tumors and ascites. Both protocols involve a simple yet rapid method for the growth and propagation of EOC tumor and ascites cells in a basal culture medium w ...
Specific biological properties of ovarian cancer cells can be modeled and studied using in vitro experiments. Any experimental setting can closely reflect some aspects of the native conditions; however, parameters that differ from in vivo aspects must be considered. Familiarity with ...
Changes in protein glycosylation are a hallmark of most types of cancer including ovarian carcinoma. The structural elucidation of glycans is technically challenging and it requires complementary chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques among others. Here, we describe ...
Reverse phase protein array (RPPA) is a very suitable technique to analyze large numbers of proteins in small samples like for example tumor biopsies. Beside their small size another major hindrance for the analysis of proteins from biopsies is the extraction of proteins from formalin-fix ...
Herein, we have utilized two cellular models of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), where transfer of normal chromosome 18 material into the EOC cell lines TOV-112D and TOV-21G induced in vitro and in vivo suppression of tumorigenic phenotype in derived hybrid clones. Two-dimensional-liqu ...
The revised version of cancer hallmarks, depicting the biological properties acquired during tumor development and progression, includes the capability to modify or reprogram cellular metabolism. High-resolution multinuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) p ...
Most of the research on tumor cell metabolism has focused on glucose utilization. However, when glucose is limited, solid tumors are forced to catabolize alternative substrates such as fatty acids and amino acids as an energy source. Measuring these alternations in tumor cell metabolism en ...

