[The effect of cell density on E-cadherins expression, distribution and migration of hepatic cells and hepatoma...

This research project was designed to explore the molecular basis of the loss of contact inhibition in hepatoma cells by regulating the cell growth density of hepatic cells (L02) and hepatoma cells (HepG2) respectively. Analyzing the character of morphology, the change of cytoskeleton, the ability of deformation, the expression and distribution of E-cadherins of hepatic cells and hepatoma cells with different density, we found: Hepatoma cells' E-cadherins increased when compared to the hepatic cells'; Hepatic cells' up-regulated E-cadherins, and with their increased growth density, hepatic cells gathered in the contacted areas; Hepatoma cells, however, tended to down-regulate the expression of E-cadherins, and they kept the fusion distribution. The migration rate and net migration distance of these two kinds of cells were inhibited by growth density. Hepatoma cells kept the strong ability of migration, but the migration trace discretization of hepatic cell decreased with the increase of growth density. Hepatoma cells kept the high discretization of migration trace in different growth density. These different results show that hepatic cells are in positive correlation with E-cadherins distribution, and are in negative correlation with its migration. There is no aggregation tendency seen with respect to hepatoma cells' E-cadherins. The effect of hepatoma cells' growth density on migration is not obvious.