[Inhibition of tumor cell adhesion and metastasis].

Since the establishment of an experimental metastasis model using some tumor metastatic cell lines, progress has been made in basic studies on tumor metastasis. In addition, the complex mechanisms of tumor metastasis have been elucidated by the cellular and molecular studies. Here we focus our attention on the relationship between tumor metastasis and cellular adhesiveness, a factor which is a critical determinant in tumor progression and metastasis. The roles of cell adhesive molecules in the metastatic process are also described. This type of study is invaluable in understanding the molecular and regulatory mechanisms of tumor metastasis. We also report the antimetastatic effect of some polypeptides of fibronectin in the extracellular matrices, poly (RGD) and recombinant fusion peptide containing cell- and heparin-binding domain of fibronectin (CH-271) in regulating the mechanism of tumor cell adhesion.