Abstract
Cell movement plays an essential role in embryonic development, wound healing in multicellular organisms and cancer metastatis. It is known to be a cyclic system of the protrusion at the leading edge, adhesion to the extracellular matrix via focal adhesions and detachment and retraction at the cell rear. Focal adhesions are one of the key players for cell movement. However, in case of HT1080 fibrosarcoma cell which is one of the cancer cells, although mechaism of invasion to the extracellular matrix has been extensively studied, mechanism of adhesion to the extracellular matrix via focal adhesions has not been well understood. In this study, therefore, an attemp was made to visualize and analyze the distribution of focal adhesions in HT1080 fibrosarcoma cells expressing RFP-zyxin and GFP-actin by laser confocal microscopy. As a result, during movement of HT1080 fibrosarcoma cell, focal adhesions appeared at the region of protrusion whereas they disappeared or remained at the region of retraction, which led to the asymmetric distribution of focal adhesions in the cell. On the other hand, when a cell showed staying behavior during movement, focal adhesions equally distributed close to the edge of the cell.
