Migration and gap junctional intercellular communication determine the metastatic phenotype of human tumor cell lines

Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) as well as cell migration play an essential role in the metastatic cascade of human tumors. We show a dependence of metastatogenic phenotypes of human tumor cells (cell lines T 24, SCC-25, MDA-MB-361 and SK-BR-3) from the GJIC and the migration activity. The GJIC was studied by microinjection of the fluorescent dye Lucifer Yellow (LY) and cell migration was studied by investigating the locomotion of the tumor cells in 3-dimensional collagen matrices. Diminished GJIC seems to be more influential for the metastatic phenotype than modulation of the locomotory behavior of the tumor cells.