Lipid characteristics in metastatic cells

Interest in lipid characteristics of metastatic cells was aroused by the co nsideration that the various lipid components of cell membranes influence a broad spectrum of cell surface biological functions which are involved in different steps of the metastatic cascade. Correlation between invasive pro perties and characteristics of cell surface components has been appropriate ly studied in a limited number of metastatic cell systems isolated by in vi vo and in vitro procedures. The major findings of this study have been repo rted in this review. Among membrane lipid components, glycolipids and phosp holipids appeared particularly affected in tumor cells which acquired a met astatic phenotype. In fact, the reduction of complex gangliosides typical o f transformed cell lines was even more evident in a highly metastatic varia nt selected from RSV-transformed murine fibroblasts. The reduction of compl ex gangliosides, mainly GD1a, particularly affected the adhesion sites of t his variant. In a fibrosarcoma line, T3 cells, the metastatic properties ap peared to be correlated with the content and cell surface expression of Gb3 ose, a glycolipid characteristic of this line. Moreover, a particularly hig h level of ether-linked lipids was found in high metastatic variants isolat ed from murine melanoma and fibrosarcoma lines, as well as in human mammary carcinomas. The findings considered in this review are discussed for their possible relevance to the invasive properties of metastatic cells.