ASSESSMENT OF TUMOR-CELL COHESION IN-VIVO USING PATTERN INTERPRETATION BY CELLULAR-AUTOMATA

OBJECTIVE: There is abundant evidence that patterning in life sciences may be closely related to the functional properties of the constituti ve elements. In order to estimate some of these functional properties by examining the static pattern evolved, pattern interpretation by cel lular automata (PICA) was introduced and applied to the mechanisms of tumor growth. Previously it was shown that the estimates concerning tu mor cell proliferation and motility were consistent with those obtaine d by other methods. STUDY DESIGN: Morphologic patterns obtained by gro wing two variants of the C4 cervical carcinoma cell lines with differe nt in vitro adhesive properties in the hamster cheek pouch were evalua ted by PICA. RESULTS: PICA estimates of tumor cell cohesion turned out to be significantly higher in tumors derived from the C4-I cell line (0.73 +/- 0.02 SD) with high in vitro cohesiveness than in tumors deri ved from the less adhesive C4-II cell line (0.32 +/- 0.04 SD; t test, P = .001). CONCLUSION: These results indicate that Junctional estimate s concerning tumor cell cohesion obtained by PICA may be in good agree ment with in vitro observations of the same cellular property and furt her underscore that PICA may be a useful tool for the functional inter pretation of static histologic patterns.