Stimulation of murine tumour cell motility by laminin

Several variant cell lines that are deficient in surface laminin have been isolated from heterogeneous murine tumour populations. The parent populations from which these variant lines were isolated contain cells that express high levels of surface laminin as indicated by immunofluorescence, immunoperoxidase/electron microscopy and immunoprecipitation. The laminin-deficient lines were compared with their respective parent populations for motility by both the Boyden Chamber assay and the agarose assay. In both assays, the laminin-positive populations were much more motile than the laminin-deficient lines. The addition of exogenous laminin to the laminin-deficient lines significantly increased their motility. These observations are of interest since cell motility is thought to contribute to tumour cell metastasis, and the laminin-positive cell populations are highly tumorigenic and metastatic, while the laminin-deficient cells are of low tumorigenicity and are virtually non-metastatic.