Basement membrane regulates gene expression in HEC1B(L) endometrial adenocarcinoma cells.

The morphology and differentiation of human endometrial adenocarcinoma cells HEC1B(L) are influenced by cell-matrix interactions. Culturing of HEC1B(L) cells on an extracellular matrix (ECM) induced the formation of a three-dimensionally arranged, highly ordered branching network of HEC1B(L) cells. In an effort to identify biologically important genes that are involved in this in vitro differentiation process of endometrial tumor cells we applied the method of "differential display." We isolated two DNA fragments, which were differentially regulated by ECM. One of these fragments, MESR4/13, was downregulated by ECM and contains a TG rich sequence. The second fragment, MES13/15, demonstrates high sequence similarity to MESR4/13 except for the TG-rich region and is induced by ECM. Probably these genes are potent markers to study the molecular basis of the process of in vitro differentiation of endometrial adenocarcinoma cells.