INVITRO INVASIVE POTENTIAL AND TYPE-IV COLLAGENOLYTIC ACTIVITY OF HUMAN RENAL-CELL CARCINOMA-CELLS DERIVED FROM PRIMARY AND METASTATIC LESIONS

We investigated in vitro invasiveness and type IV collagenolytic activ ity of cells from a primary and a metastatic lesion of a patient with renal cell carcinoma. The temporarily cultured cells (SRCC-1P) derived from the primary lesion and those (SRCC-1M) from the metastatic lesio n exhibited positive staining for both cytokeratin and vimentin, indic ating that they were of renal cell carcinoma origin. An in vitro invas ion assay revealed that the cells of SRCC-1M were significantly more i nvasive than those of SRCC-1P, which showed only marginal invasion. Ty pe IV collagenolytic activity correlated with the in vitro invasivenes s, in which SRCC-1M apparently had the higher activity. These results indicate that type IV collagenolytic activity contributes to the invas iveness of the cells in vitro.