Quantitative and qualitative differences in growth, invasion and lung colonization of an anaplastic and a papillary human thyroid cancer cell line in vitro and in vivo

Erwin R. Boghaert, Kenneth Ain, Kimberly Taylor, Victoria L. Greenberg, Carol Fowler, Stephen G. Zimmer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Invasion and metastasis remain major reasons for failure of anti-cancer therapy. Cell lines derived from human carcinomas are frequently used to investigate the molecular mechanisms that underlie invasion and metastasis. Unfortunately many of these cell lines do not retain the malignant characteristics of their parental tumors. We therefore conducted a series of experiments in vivo and in vitro to identify which aspects of malignancy of a papillary (NPA'87) and an anaplastic (DRO90-1) thyroid carcinoma were consistent with the pathology of the parental tumor types. We evaluated tumor growth, invasion and metastasis of DRO90-1 and NPA'87 in vivo following inoculation of the tumor cells under the dermis, under the renal capsule and into the lateral tail vein of nude mice. This evaluation in vivo showed that the anaplastic carcinoma had a faster growth rate compared with the papillary carcinoma. Furthermore, the papillary carcinoma cells could destroy and infiltrate surrounding tissue but were not capable of extravasation and colonization of lung tissue. The anaplastic cells formed lung nodules following injection into the tail vein of nude mice. This lung colonizing capability of DRO90-1 correlated with their capacity to secrete an active 62 kDa gelatinase and to migrate through reconstituted basement membrane in vitro.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)440-450
Number of pages11
JournalClinical and Experimental Metastasis
Volume14
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1996

Keywords

  • Basement membrane
  • Gelatinase
  • Invasion
  • Thyroid cancer

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

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