2016 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 123-133
Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is known to be a highly malignant cancer of the thyroid with a high mortality rate. In a previous study, we used real-time cell analysis (RTCA) to analyze cell migration and invasion of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) of the tongue and floor of the mouth. In the present study, we investigated cell migration and invasion of ATC using RTCA, as well as their association with periostin, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and integrins. Experiments were performed on TCO-1 and HTC/C3 cells, which are human ATC cell lines. OSCC cell lines were used for comparison. Using the cell analysis system, cell migration was assessed on fibronectin-coated CIM-Plates, whereas invasion was assessed on fibronectin- and matrigel-coated CIM-Plates. SCC-4 cells exhibited high cell migration and invasion activity compared with other OSCC cell lines. TCO-1 cells exhibited equivalent cell invasion but stronger migration than SCC-4 cells. Although TCO-1 cells had strong invasive activity, they did not express MMP-9, unlike SCC-4 cells. Conversely, periostin expression was high in TCO-1 cells. Therefore, periostin expression appears to be associated with the cell migration and invasion activity of ATC. The RTCA system will be useful for the analysis of the metastatic characteristics of ATC in head and neck cancer.
