Epidermal growth factor and laminin receptors contribute to migratory and invasive properties of gliomas

Berit Bølge Tysnes*, Hans Kristian Haugland, Rolf Bjerkvig

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

    40 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Gliomas are characterized by their extensive invasion into the brain parenchyma. Recently it has been shown that normal brain cells can produce laminin, fibronectin and collagen type IV when confronted by invading glioma cells. Laminin stimulates cell migration of several human glioma cell lines in vitro. This migration can be inhibited by adding blocking monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against the most expressed integrin subunits, α3 and β1. Previous studies have shown that glioma cell migration, invasion and growth are stimulated by epidermal growth factor (EGF). However, MAb directed against the EGF receptor (EGFR) did only partly inhibit the invasive process in vitro. Since laminin has regional peptide homology with EGF (EGF-like repeats), the present work was aimed at studying how two human glioma cell lines exposed to antibodies to the EGFR, reacted to laminin stimulated migration. Furthermore, we wanted to study which role the EGFR and the laminin receptor integrin subunits α3 and β1 play during glioma cell invasion. EGFR expression of two glioma cell lines, ANq/lacZ and U-251/lacZ was studied by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy. A cell migration assay was used to study effects of MAbs against EGFR on migration from laminin-stimulated tumor spheroids. Tumor cell invasion was evaluated by using an in vitro co-culture model, where normal fetal brain cell aggregates were confronted with multicellular tumor spheroids. The results show that both cell lines expressed EGFR, AN1/lacZ 4-fold more than U-251/lacZ. MAb against EGFR inhibited the laminin-stimulated migration only from AN1/lacZ spheroids. MAbs against α3 and β1 integrin subunits inhibited glioma cell invasion in vitro. The present work indicates possible connections between laminin-stimulated cell migration and the EGFR expression on glioma cells. These elements contribute to the characteristic features of glioma cells and may be an important part of the complex relationships between growth factors, integrins and extracellular matrix during glioma cell invasion.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)270-280
    Number of pages11
    JournalInvasion and Metastasis
    Volume17
    Issue number5
    Publication statusPublished - 1997

    Keywords

    • Brain aggregate
    • Epidermal growth factor receptor
    • Glioma
    • Integrin
    • Invasion
    • Laminin
    • Migration

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