The expression of cadherins in human neuroblastoma cell lines and clinicaltumors

Cadherins are Ca2+-dependent cell-cell adhesion molecules which play crucia l roles in the cell-cell interactions during development, tumorigenesis and metastasis. The absence of N (neural)-cadherin is correlated with the onse t of neural crest migration and its reappearance is correlated with the ces sation of migration and precedes gangliogenesis. We investigated the expres sion of cadherins including N-cadherin in five cell lines and eleven clinic al specimens of human neuroblastomas, which originated from neural crest ce lls. We found that three of the neuroblastoma cell lines and all the clinic al specimens were positive for the expression of the N-cadherin protein. Th e other two neuroblastoma cell lines were negative for the expression sugge sting they originated from migrating neural crest cells. All these cell lin es and clinical samples expressed either cadherin-6, cadherin-11 or both, i .e. cadherins expressed on neural crest cells, supporting their neural cres t origin.