Enhancement of type IV collagenases by highly metastatic variants of HT1080 fibrosarcoma cells established by a transendothelial invasion system in vitro.

A novel in vitro invasion assay system was established in this laboratory, in which the invasion of tumor cells after interaction with endothelial cells could be examined. Two variant cell lines (FP-10, FP-21) were established from parental HT1080 cells using this assay system. FP-10 and FP-21 cells had higher invasive and metastatic potential than the parental cells both in vitro and in vivo. The activity of anchorage-independent proliferation and the adhesion to the HUVEC monolayer of FP-10 and FP-21 was greater than the parental cells. The secretion of type IV collagenase (both MMP-2 and MMP-9) was also increased more significantly by the variant cells than by the parental cells, and the expression of uPA mRNA was higher in FP-10 and FP-21. Treatment of variant cells with human TIMP-2 remarkably suppressed the increment of the in vitro invasion to the same level as parental cells. These results suggest that this in vitro transendothelial invasion system accelerates multiple mechanisms of the metastasis by HT1080, especially the production of type IV collagenases. It can thus provide a useful model of tumor metastasis.