A tug of war between cell-cell and cell-ECM interaction during tumor invasion

Tumor invasion within the interstitial space is critically regulated by the force balance between the cell-cell and cell-ECM adhesion. In this talk, we will present a newly developed 3D tumor model in which tumor spheroids were embedded within collagen matrix, and tumor cell dynamics are subsequently imaged and analyzed. We varied cell-cell and cell-ECM adhesion by using three epithelial cell lines with increasing expression levels of E-cadherin (responsible for cell-cell adhesion) and decreasing expression of integrin (responsible for cell-ECM adhesion). Interestingly, our results demonstrated that the tumor cells at the peripheral of the tumor spheroid underwent a tug of war between the cell-ECM and the cell-cell adhesion. Integrin dependent cell-ECM adhesion promoted tumor invasion, while E-cadhesion mediated cell-cell adhesion inhibited tumor invasion.