We cant really take vacations. The cells need to be taken care of. Its like having a dog, Korbyn Dahlquist 20 explained with only a hint of sarcasm last summer. At the time, the biochemistry and chemistry double major and Associate Professor of Chemistry Angela Stoeckman were embarking on a year-long Edgren Scholarship-funded research project focused on understanding the dietary influence on markers of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.

To achieve that, the team has been treating liver cancer cellsH4IIE, which can be bought online through distributorswith control substances or a saturated fatty acid called palmitate. The hope is to determine when cells are going through apoptosisdying because of the presence of extra lipidsand if theyre secreting an anti- or pro-inflammatory response in the form of cytokines. Thats like a chemical call for help that could flag the presence of further injury through a simple blood test.

To create the ideal setting for this type of work on fussy mammalian cell cultures, the team has created an intricate and incredibly hands-on process of sterilizing a biosafety cabinet with UV rays before growing cultures in optimal conditions over several days. Then they have to time their assays perfectly with the death of the cells to get the data they need.

They stain the apoptotic cells with fluorescent markers and run them through a flow cytometer. A million cells can be run through the machine at once, and it quantifies the amount of lipids present in specific populations, within a split second.

If people with the cancer have high levels of a certain cytokine, theres morbidity in the disease, Stoeckman explains. If person A is secreting, and B is not, perhaps A is more likely to die from their cancer. What Korbyn is noticing is that if these cancer cells are seeing palmitate, a saturated fatty acid, thats inducing them to secrete more cytokines, which is responsible for high morbidity. And maybe we can keep cytokines under control simply by recommending a certain diet!

NAFLD is a condition that impacts an estimated one in three Americans, and it can progress into hepatocellular carcinoma, the fastest-growing type of liver cancer globally. Its responsible for the third highest number of cancer deaths, so detecting NAFLD early could mean saving lives in the long term. Currently, it can only be identified by biopsy, which is both invasive and expensive.

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Student-faculty Research Team Assessing Early Markers and Dietary Treatment of Liver Cancer - Bethel University News