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CELL SURFACE CHARGE AND METASTASIS FORMATION
Author(s) -
Hagmar Björn
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
acta pathologica microbiologica scandinavica section a pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0365-4184
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1972.tb00291.x
Subject(s) - heparin , dextran , metastasis , cell , chemistry , cancer metastasis , cancer research , pathology , medicine , cancer , biochemistry
An attempt was made to evaluate experimentally the importance of surface charge characteristics of tumour cells for growth of subcutaneous transplants and for metastasis distribution and growth in a syngeneic tumour‐host system (MCG1‐SS in CBA mice). The effect of nonsubstituted dextran (D) was compared to those of the polycation DEAE‐dextran (DEAE‐D) and the polyanion dextran‐sulphate (DS). Heparin was included in some of the experiments as an additional polyanion. D, DS and heparin increased the net negative surface charge of the tumour cells, while DEAE‐D drastically reduced or reversed it, as determined by cell electrophoresis. When given as intravenous pretreatment, the dextrans caused no significant changes in the total amount of metastases. When added to the cell suspensions, dextran (D) and DEAE‐D increased the total metastasis crop by giving larger pulmonary metastases and increasing the number of tumour “takes” in other organs. In the case of dextran (D), this was parallelled by a tendency to promoted growth of subcutaneously transplanted tumour cells, while DEAE‐D blocked the subcutaneous transplantability of the tumour cells. This effect was reversible and could be removed by DS treatment of the cells. DS treatment alone of the tumour cells did not affect metastasis formation to any significant extent. This was in contrast to heparin treatment which seemed to shunt metastases past the lungs, i. e. the first capillary bed encountered after injection. The lack of DS effect was tentatively explained as an interplay between impaired lodgement in vessels and promoted transplantability. For DS treatment of cells improved their subcutaneous transplantability, evidenced by the quicker growth and larger resulting tumour volumes. Heparin only hastened the growth of subcutaneously transplanted cells. No evidence was found that the dextrans or heparin brought about the differences in transplantability or metastasis formation by altered aggregatability in the tumour cell suspensions. Neither did they affect the viability index determined by dye exclusion of the tumour cells in suspension. DEAE‐D seemed to increase the mechanical resistance of vigourously agitated cells in suspension, however.