# THE ROLE OF CELL MOVEMENT AND CONTACT IN TUMOR INVASION

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA · 1987 · $65,018

## Abstract

The goal of this study is to elucidate the role of cell movement and
contact behavior (including contact inhibition) in the invasive behavior of
malignant B16 murine melanoma tumor cells.  Two alternative hypotheses will
be tested to explain tumor cell invasiveness:  (1) that they have lost
their susceptibility to contact inhibition of movement or (2) that they are
able to avoid the effects of contact inhibition by moving on available
extracellular substrata and avoiding inhibiting contacts with normal tissue
cells.  Variant sublines of B16, which exhibit quantitative differences in
their ability to invade locally into tissues and to metastasize to the
lungs, lymph nodes, mesentery, or other organs of syngeneic C57/BL6 mice,
will be examined for their contact behavior and invasiveness in vitro.
Tumor cell motility, contact behavior, and frequency of contact inhibition
of movement will be assayed in monolayer cultures in which populations of
B16 cells are confronted with populations of normal murine cells.  A
qualitative and quantitative analysis of cell movement and contact behavior
will be carried out using time lapse cinemicrography of living cells and
statistical analysis of the distribution of cells in fixed cultures.  The
invasive behavior of B16 cells will be studied in organ cultures of murine
mesentery.  The interactions of different variant sublines of B16 with the
cells and extracellular matrix of the mesentery will be observed directly,
using time lapse cinemicrography to record cell behavior.  In addition,
scanning and transmission electron microscopy will be used to monitor the
process of invasion and to analyze the effects of invading cells on the
extracellular matrix and normal cell population of the mesentery.  The data
on cell behavior and invasion will then be analyzed statistically and
correlated with quantitative data on the invasive ability of the same
subline of cells in vivo, in order to determine which aspects of cell
social behavior in two and/or three dimensions are either positively or
negatively correlated with invasiveness in vivo.  (O)

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3174192
- **Project number:** 5R01CA036547-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
- **SAM.gov UEI:** EVTSTTLCEWS5
- **Principal Investigator:** PAUL B BELL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $65,018
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1985-07-01 → 1988-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3174192

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3174192, THE ROLE OF CELL MOVEMENT AND CONTACT IN TUMOR INVASION (5R01CA036547-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3174192. Licensed CC0.

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