Characteristics of invasive and noninvasive human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells.

A human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (LoVo) established from a lymph node metastasis was used to study properties associated with invasive tumor cells. Human amniotic membranes were used as invasion barriers to select highly invasive and noninvasive subpopulations of cells from the parent LoVo line. Enriched subpopulations were compared with respect to parameters associated with invasion. The invasive cells were more invasive in vitro and more highly sialylated than either the parental or noninvasive line. Invasive cells migrated more strongly in vitro toward gradients of soluble and insoluble laminin, and their augmented migration correlated with increased adhesion and spreading on laminin-coated substrata. Invasive cells also had the highest level of specific laminin-binding activity. Thus, the invasive cells were shown to possess specific properties that correlated with their successful traversal of the human amnion membrane.