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Carcinoembryonic antigen facilitates experimental metastasis through a mechanism that does not involve adhesion to liver cells

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Abstract

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) injected intravenously into athymic nude mice increases the ability of weakly metastatic human colorectal carcinoma (CRC) cells to colonize liver in an experimental metastasis assay. Since CEA acts as an intercellular adhesion molecule in vitro, several investigators have postulated that this facilitation of experimental metastasis may be mediated through adhesion between CEA on CRC and CEA-binding proteins on Kupffer or other cells lining the hepatic sinusoid. The present work tested this postulate both by intravital fluorescence videomicroscopy in vivo and in adhesion assays in vitro to enriched populations of Kupffer cells and hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells (SEC). The data indicate that CEA expression does not effect adhesion to enriched Kupffer cells or SEC in vitro. These data suggest that CEA enhances liver colonization through another mechanism, possibly one that involves modulation of the hepatic response to tumor cell implantation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and the Gastrointestinal Oncology Research Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    J.M. Jessup

  2. First Department of Surgery, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan

    S. Ishii & T. Mitzoi

  3. Virginia Surgical Associates, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    K.H. Edmiston

  4. Department of Surgery, Takasago Kyoritsu Hospital, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Y. Shoji

Authors
  1. J.M. Jessup
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  2. S. Ishii
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  3. T. Mitzoi
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  4. K.H. Edmiston
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  5. Y. Shoji
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Jessup, J., Ishii, S., Mitzoi, T. et al. Carcinoembryonic antigen facilitates experimental metastasis through a mechanism that does not involve adhesion to liver cells. Clin Exp Metastasis 17, 481–488 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006685817395

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