Chemotaxis of metastatic tumor cells.

A number of factors have been identified which are chemotactic for tumor cells. Recent studies have shown that, in addition to inducing directional motility in the Boyden chamber assay, these factors also induce a number of other responses. Included among these responses are cell swelling and foreign surface adhesiveness. The adherence response has been studied in detail using the Walker 256 carcinosarcoma cells and several other cell types. In the Walker cells, treatment with the C5a-derived tumor cell chemotactic peptide, the synthetic tripeptide, N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine or with 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol ester induces a rapid, transient adherence response. The response is completely inhibited by several agents known to block the activity of phospholipase A2 or the metabolism of arachidonic acid through the lipoxygenase pathway but is not inhibited by inhibition of the cyclooxygenase pathway. This suggests that lipoxygenase metabolites of arachidonic acid may actually mediate the adherence response. It has been shown that chemotactic factor treatment of animals that are bearing circulating tumor cells induces a localization of these cells at the site of chemotactic factor injection. On the basis of these observations it has been hypothesized that tumor cells respond to chemotactic factors in much the same way that leukocytes do and that tumor cell localization at metastatic sites in vivo may be influenced by chemotactic factors in much the same way that leukocyte localization at inflammatory sites is.