Attachment of neuroblastoma cells to extracellular matrix: correlation with metastatic capacity

Extracellular matrix (ECM) serves important attachment functions during organogenesis in mammalian species. When layered on a plastic surface, ECM extracted from the rat lung, liver, or kidney enhances the attachment of C1300 murine neuroblastoma cells to that surface. Enhanced attachment to ECM by these cells correlates with their potential to form metastatic deposits in vivo. Conversely, neuroblastoma cells selected for increased metastatic potential by in vivo passaging demonstrate enhanced attachment to organ-derived ECM. However, although ECM provides attachment sites for these murine neuroblastoma cells, the attachment is not preferential for any of the organ ECMs tested (lung, liver, kidney). Histopathologic examination of the murine liver, lungs, and kidneys performed 20 to 22 days after intravenous inoculation of C1300 cells reveals notable metastatic seeding in each of these organs, but the liver clearly exhibits a greater degree of replacement by tumor metastases than the lungs or the kidneys. Therefore, the data from the attachment assays, coupled with the histopathologic findings obtained after tumor inoculation, suggest that although the ability to attach to ECM correlates with metastatic potential, additional factors are important in determining the preferential pattern of metastatic disease observed in murine neuroblastoma.