Cisplatin-induced alteration on membrane composition of A549 cells revealed by ToF-SIMS

Cisplatin has been clinically used for treatment of solid tumors such as non–small-cell lung cancer for decades. However, tumor resistance may be acquired with losing the antitumor activity of cisplatin. As cellular membrane is the first barrier that cisplatin has to overcome before its further action inside the cells, the membrane composition must play a vital role in the cisplatin uptake and excretion, which further influences cisplatin sensitivity. In this work, we applied time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) surface analysis combined with principle component analysis to distinguish the differences of cell membrane composition between non–small-cell lung cancer cells (A549) and its cisplatin resistant counterpart A549/DDP cells. The decreased phosphatidylcholine content and more abundant cholesterol were observed in the drug resistant cell surfaces, indicating the decreased membrane fluidity of A549/DDP cells. Moreover, we further compared membrane composition of A549 and A549/DDP cells after being treated with different concentrations of cisplatin. A higher composition level of proteins was discovered on all groups of A549/DDP cell membranes. The altered surface chemistry of cellular membranes induced by cisplatin indicates the significance of membrane structures in the drug resistance, which deserves further investigations to this regard.