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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Multidimensional Coculture System to Model Lung Squamous Carcinoma Progression
Published on: March 17, 2020
Air-liquid interface promotes invasive growth of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma with or without hypoxia
Shuji Toda1, Shoichiro Yamada, Shigehisa Aoki
1Department of Pathology and Biodefence, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Saga 849-8501, Japan. todas@post.saga-med.ac.jp
Abstract:
Air-liquid interface (ALI) is a microenvironment of aerodigestive tract. In our previous study, ALI promoted invasive growth of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC); but its mechanism was unclear. Hypoxia is also related to cancer spread. Here we show that ALI with or without hypoxia accelerated invasive growth of laryngeal SCC cells, using collagen gel invasion assay. Submerged condition (SMC) without ALI did not induce the invasion with or without hypoxia. ALI enhanced expression of the following growth-, invasion-, and motility-related molecules in the cells with or without hypoxia more greatly than SMC: c-Met, Ras, mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade proteins (Raf-1, MEK-1, and ERK-1/2), matrix metalloproteinase-1, and filamin A. The data indicate that ALI promotes invasive growth of SCC cells by enhancement of the invasive growth-related molecules above, through mechanisms that differ from hypoxia, suggesting that ALI microenvironment should be taken into account for the study of cancer biology.
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