Routine Microscopy of Cervical Cancer Cells

Working with cancer cell lines to understand persister cells

Persister cells are subpopulations of cancer cells that resist treatment by changing to a state of dormancy or quiescence. Persister cells in cervical cancer can be resistent to cisplatin,  an FDA-approved chemotherapeutic drug, or they can show resistance to gene silencing of  RBBP6, which codes for the multifunctional regulatory protein called retinoblastoma-binding protein, which binds to the tumor suppressor proteins p53 and pRB.

Dr. Pontsho Moela is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She uses ZEISS Primovert for routine microscopy of her cell lines that support her research understanding cervical cancer persister cells.

In addition to using microscopy with ZEISS Primovert to visualize our cell cultures, Dr. Moela and her team also use microscopy for morphology analysis.

Viable, highly proliferative cells maintain their original shape, be it the spikey protrusions in epithelial HeLa cells or the dome structures normally observed in MCF-7 monolayer cells. HEK293 is another cell line that shows a high level of RBBP6 expression as visualized by immunostaining. However, when undergoing apoptotic cell death in response to RBBP6 silencing, these cells undergo morphological changes such as membrane blebbing, nuclei collapse, and an irregular overall shape, which can be assessed with routine microscopy.