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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1988 Jan;85(2):473–476. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.2.473

Loss of intercellular junctional communication correlates with metastatic potential in mammary adenocarcinoma cells.

G L Nicolson 1, K M Dulski 1, J E Trosko 1
PMCID: PMC279572  PMID: 3422438

Abstract

A series of rat 13762NF mammary adenocarcinoma cell sublines and clones of various spontaneous pulmonary metastatic potentials from the mammary fat pads of syngeneic rats were examined for their intercellular junctional communication. Using the scrape-loading dye-transfer technique to introduce Lucifer yellow (Mr 457) into cells, we measured the abilities of 13762NF cells to transfer dye to adjacent cells. There was an excellent correlation between loss of Lucifer yellow dye transfer and spontaneous metastatic potential (average total volume of lung metastases inversely correlated to % cells coupled, r = 0.93; average total number of lung metastases inversely correlated to % cells coupled, r = 0.91). The data suggest that high metastatic potentials are closely correlated with loss of intercellular junctional communication in these malignant mammary tumor cells.

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Selected References

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