Ovarian cancer antigen CA 125 influences adhesion of human and mammalian cell lines in vitro.

Despite the widespread use of CA 125 for diagnostic and therapeutic evaluation of ovarian cancer function, the molecular nature of CA 125 is only poorly understood. It has been shown that CA 125 enhances the invasiveness of a benign endometriotic cell line in vitro. The invasiveness of cells is controlled by proteolytic activity, cell motility and cell adhesion. Therefore, we determined the influence of CA 125 on the cell adhesion of human carcinoma cell lines in vitro. In all tested human and mammalian cell lines (HECIA, AN3-CA, RL95-2, SK-OV-3, OAW-42, PA-1, HeLa, MCF7, T-47D, A-673, RT112, EJ28, EEC 145, CHO, MDBK, MDCK. LLC-PK1) the cell adhesion in vitro was significantly impaired by CA 125 in a time-dependent manner. Treatment of cells with trypsin diminished the effect of CA 125 on cell adhesion for two hours. By inhibition of protein synthesis with cycloheximide (2 microg/ml) the influence of trypsin on the anti-adhesive effect of CA 125 was significantly prolonged. The results suggest that the ovarian cancer antigen CA 125 influences cell adhesion in vitro.