title: Determinants of differential liver-colonizing potential of variants of the MCA-38 murine colon cancer cell line.
abstract: We investigated factors that might contribute to the differing liver tumor colonizing potentials of MCA-38 colonic cancer cell line variants injected into the ileocolic veins of C57Bl/6J mice. Non-colonizing (MCA-38 CD) cells were sensitive to lysis by hepatic natural killer (NK) cells in vitro (51Cr-release assay) and cells with high liver-colonizing potential (MCA-38 LD) were resistant. Following abrogation of NK activity by treatment with anti-asialoGM1, liver-colonizing ability to LD cells but not CD cells was enhanced. MCA-38 CD cells were, however, capable of initial liver colonization after ileocolic vein injection. Differing patterns of membrane sialylation may have contributed to the contrasting hepatic tumorigenicities of LD and CD cells; beta-galactoside alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase mRNA levels and activity were approximately four-fold higher in LD than CD cells and qualitative and quantitative differences existed between their ganglioside profiles. In the MCA-38 model outlined, tumor cell susceptibility or resistance to NK lysis was a relatively unimportant determinant of liver-colonizing potential.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, State University of New York, Buffalo.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Piscatelli
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Berenson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lance
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000032:analysis; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary*; D008546:Melanoma, Experimental / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D012799:Sialyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D005732:Gangliosides; D012799:Sialyltransferases