[Increased cell adhesiveness and decreased tumorigenicity induced in human colon carcinoma cells by transfection with E-cadherin cDNA].

Metastasis of colon carcinomas is assumed to be caused by multiple steps, which include a loss of cell adhesion that results in the release of carcinoma cells from the original tumor tissue. A human colon carcinoma cell line was established from a poorly differentiated metastatic adenocarcinoma without cell-cell adhesion and without expression of E-cadherin mRNA. To this cell line, mouse E-cadherin cDNA in a expression vector was co-transfected with a neomycin-resistant gene. The transfected cells, which expressed exogenous E-cadherin gene, showed a compact shape with strong cell-cell adhesion and with increased cell-substratum adhesion. These cells showed a significantly low anchorage independency and decreased invasiveness compared to the parental carcinoma cells. Their growth rate was decreased both in vitro and in the subcutis of nude mice.