The Variation of Invasion of Metastatic Cancer Cell Lines Across Sea Urchin Basement Membranes Over the Cell Cycle

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Authors
Rossing, Matthew J.
Issue Date
1996
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
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Abstract
Metastasis is the most deadly aspect of cancer, leading to the spread of tumors throughout the body. An important facet of cancer is invasion across basement membranes. In this paper, we look at the variation of invasion frequency over the cell cycle using basement membranes from embryos of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotous purpuratus as a model of invasion. This model has previously been shown to give good correlation with metastatic potential in vivo. The drug lovastatin is used to synchronize the metastatic cancer cell lines, which are then placed on basement membranes at varying parts of the cell cycle. Invasion frequencies are assayed microscopically. Flow cytometric analysis using propidium iodide DNA staining in conjunction with anti-bromodeoxyuridine staining is then used to determine in which phases of the cell cycle invasion is high or low. In the three cell lines tested, there is an apparent variation of invasiveness over the cell cycle. Preliminary data suggest that cells are most highly invasive during S phase. Future work will confirm this or determine exactly when in their growth cycle cancer cells are most invasive. Differences between phases with high invasion frequencies and low invasion frequencies should help direct further research into the mechanisms of invasion of metastatic cancer cells.
With honors.
Description
v, 30 p.
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Kalamazoo College
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U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
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