The expression of epithelial mesenchymal transition related factors in human colorectal cancer cell lines

Purpose: Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a well characterized embryological process thought to play a vital role in tumor progression.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the expression of EMT-related factors and then use EMT status to identify high metastatic potential in commonly used human colorectal cancer cell lines.Methods: In 11 commonly used cell lines, total mRNA expression levels were checked for the cell markers E-cadherin, vimentin, N-cadherin, and fibronectin, and the transcription factors snail, slug, twist, and SIP1 using real time PCR.Results: E-cadherin expression was positive in COLO205, DLD1, and SW48 cell lines.Vimentin expression was positive in COLO205, DLD1, HCT15, KM20, and SW480.Three different EMT status groups were defined according to mRNA expression of the cell markers.The epithelial phenotype expressed E-cadherin without vimentin (SW48), incomplete EMT phenotypes either concurrently expressed or did not express both E-cadherin and vimentin (CACO2, COLO205, DLD1, KM12C, KM12SM, LoVo, and RKO), and complete EMT phenotypes expressed vimentin without E-cadherin (HCT15, KM20, and SW480).The mRNA expression of transcription factors had no correlation with expression of vimentin, N-cadherin, and fibronectin, but there was an inverse directional correlation between mRNA expression levels of transcription factors and E-cadherin.There were no statistically significant correlations, however.Conclusion: Ten cell lines among the 11 were included in the incomplete and complete EMT groups.These findings could provide evidence of the high tumorigenesis and metastatic properties.The levels of mRNA expression and EMT status of human colorectal cancer cell lines can be applied to further investigations into cancer progression.