Occupy tissue: the movement in cancer metastasis.
The critical role of migration and invasion in cancer metastasis warrants new therapeutic approaches targeting the machinery regulating cell migration and invasion. While 2-dimensional (2D) models have helped identify a range of adhesion molecules, cytoskeletal components and regulators that are potentially important for cell migration, the use of models that better mimic the 3-dimensional (3D) environment has yielded new insights into the physiology of cell movement. For example, studying cells in 3D models has revealed that invading cancer cells may switch between heterogeneous invasion modes and thus evade pharmacological inhibition of invasion. Here we summarize published data in which the role of cell adhesion molecules in 2D vs. 3D migration have been directly compared and discuss mechanisms that regulate migration speed and persistence in 2D and 3D. Finally we discuss limits of 3D culture models to recapitulate the in vivo situation.
Children's Cancer Research Unit, Kids Research Institute, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW Australia.
Peta
P
Bradbury
Ben
B
Fabry
Geraldine M
GM
O'Neill
D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000378:metabolism; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D018450:Disease Progression; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D022001:Focal Adhesions / Q000378:metabolism; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*
D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; C505592:NEDD9 protein, mouse