Cell adhesion property affected by cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase: Opto-electric approach

Expression of cyclooxygenases (COX) and lipoxygenases (LOX) has been linked to many pathophysiological phenotypes, including cell adhesion. However, many current approaches to measure cellular changes are performed only in a fixed-time point. Since cells dynamically move in conjunction with the cell matrix, there is a pressing need for dynamic or time-dependent methods for the investigation of cell properties. In the presented study, we used stable human colorectal cancer cell lines ectopically expressing COX-1, COX-2, and 15LOX-1, to investigate whether expression of COX-1, COX-2, or 15LOX-1 would affect cell adhesion using our opto-electric methodology. In a fixed-time point experiment, only COX-1- and COX-2-expressing cells enhanced phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase, but all the transfected cells showed invasion activity. However, in a real-time experiment using opto-electric approaches, transmitted cellular morphology was much different with tight adhesion being shown in COX-2 expressing cells, as imaged by differential interference contrast microscopy (DICM) and interference reflection contrast microscopy (IRCM). Furthermore, micro-impedance measurements showed a continued increase in both resistance and reactance of COX- and LOX-transfected cells, consistent with the imaging data. Our data indicate that both COX- and LOX-expressing cells have strong cell-to-cell and cell-to-substrate adhesions, and that cell imaging analysis with cell impedance data generates fully reliable results on cell adhesion measurement.