Inverse relationship between invasiveness and differentiative capacity in different human neuroblastoma cell lines

In order to clarify the relationship between invasiveness and loss of cellular differentiation in tumor cells, we studied the invasive properties on Matrigel of (a) a series of clones we isolated from human neuroblastoma LaN1 and Platt cell lines inducible to differentiation by adhesion on fibronectin, and (b) SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells inducible to differentiation by retinoic acid. We found that, regardless of the parental line, the more differentiated clones were scarcely invasive, while the less differentiated clones showed a higher degree of invasiveness. Differences in invasiveness between differentiated and non-differentiated neuroblastoma clones did not reflect differences in adhesiveness to laminin, the major component of Matrigel. The retinoic acid-sensitive SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells also reduced their invasiveness on Matrigel after differentiation induced by growth in media supplemented with retinoic acid. These results point to an inverse relationship between differentiative properties and invasiveness in human neuroblastoma cell lines.