MIGRATION AND GAP JUNCTIONAL INTERCELLULAR COMMUNICATION DETERMINE THE METASTATIC PHENOTYPE OF HUMAN TUMOR-CELL LINES

Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) as well as cell migr ation play an essential role in the metastatic cascade of human tumors . We show a dependence of metastatogenic phenotypes of human tumor cel ls (cell lines T 24, SCC-25, MDA-MB-361 and SK-BR-3) from the GJIC and the migration activity. The GJIC was studied by microinjection of the fluorescent dye Lucifer Yellow (L,Y) and cell migration was studied b y investigating the locomotion of the tumor cells in 3-dimensional col lagen matrices. Diminished GJIC seems to be more influential for the m etastatic phenotype than modulation of the locomotory behavior of the tumor cells. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.