Alterative expression of the collagenase and adhesion molecules in the highly metastatic clones of human colonic cancer cell lines

Human colonic carcinoma cell lines, KM12C, KM12SM and KM12L4, were previous ly established and their in vivo metastatic potentials have been well evalu ated, The highly metastatic cell lines KM12SM and KM12L4 were derived from the parental low metastatic cell line KM12C in vivo, To evaluate the metast atic behavior of these cell lines in vitro, we examined colony formation on monolayers of the pulmonary arterial endothelial (CPAE) cells. On day 4, t he highly metastatic cell lines showed an approximately 2-fold increase in number of colonies on CPAE cell monolayers relative to the parental KM12C c ell line, To investigate what evidence is correlated with their metastatic and invasive abilities, Northern blot analysis and Bow cytometry were perfo rmed in all cell lines, According to the results of Northern blot analysis, the levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and c-met mRNA expression w ere increased in highly metastatic cell lines as compared with the parental cell line, We also examined the cell-surface expression of several adhesio n molecules by Bow cytometry, The levels of expression of sialyl Lewis(a) a ntigen (sLe(a)) in KM12SM and KM12L4 were twice higher than that in KM12C, However, the levels of expression of E-cadherin in KM12SM and KM12L4 were d ecreased to half that in KM12C, The alterative expression of the collagenas e and adhesion molecules might contribute to their metastatic/invasive abil ities of these cell lines both in vivo and in vitro. (C) 1998 Kluwer Academ ic Publishers.