Role of the extracellular matrix on the growth and differentiated phenotype of murine colonic adenocarcinoma cells in vitro

✍ Scribed by Jackie M. Walling; Melanie Blackmore; John A. Hickman; K. M. Stuart Townsend

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 1023 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910470526

✦ Synopsis

The growth and differentiation characteristics of MAC I 5 murine adenocarcinoma cells, derived from routine passage in vivo for growth in vitro on a plastic substrate (MAC15j cells), were compared under conditions in which the cells were seeded onto a substrate of type-I collagen which was either attached to plastic or was released to float free in medium. Cells grown on a plastic substrate consisted of a heterogeneous, largely anaplastic population with a putative enterocytic morphology but with no evidence of junctional complexes or cell polarity typical of an epithelial phenotype. MAC I5j cells from cultures grown on a plastic substrate reestablished a moderate to well-defined degree of differentiation when transplanted back into NMRI mice. When MAC I5j cells were seeded from plastic onto type-I collagen, either attached to plastic or free-floating, tight junctional complexes were formed and the cells began to attain a more recognizable, columnar and polarised epithelial morphology. Cells grown on a type-I collagen gel which was free-floating showed a selective expression of alkaline phosphatase at the apical surfaces of approximately 10% of the cells. This expression was detectable by electron microscope histochemistry but could not be detected biochemically. Treatment of MAC I 5j cells grown on a released collagen matrix with tetramethylurea (2Om~) accelerated the expression of alkaline phosphatase activity at the apical surface as detected by micros-COPY.