[Biological significance of E-cadherin in an inflammatory breast carcinoma cell line].

Objective: To investigate the effects of E-cadherin on the biologic behavior of SUM149, an inflammatory breast cancer cell line.

Methods: SUM149 cells were transfected with dominant-negative mutant E-cadherin expressing plasmid. The positive clones with higher expression of dominant-negative E-cadherin mutant were identified by RT-PCR and fluorescent flow cytometry method. The differences in cell growth, proliferation and invasion between positive clones and controls were compared.

Results: Whereas the proliferation of positive clones was of no change, compared with controls, the ability of invasion was decreased and the mRNA levels of MMP-1 and MMP-9 were downregulated. Gelatin zymography analysis also confirmed the decreasing expression of MMP-9 in the positive clones.

Conclusion: In this cell line model, down-regulation of E-cadherin can inhibit the ability of invasion of this inflammatory breast cancer cell line.