The strength of adhesion in multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) depends on the expression of desmosomal cadherins

摘要

MCTS are used to model the growth of epithelial or neuronal cells in 3D conditions. Expression of E-cadherin is shown to mediate the formation of MCTS. However desmosomal proteins desmogleins (DSG) and desmocolins (DSC) also belong to the cadherine family and mediate formation of desmosomes between adjacent cells. Here we demonstrated that in HEK293 cells DSG/DSC proteins can mediate MCTS formation in the absence of E-cadherin expression. The strength of adhesion increased with the number of adhesive molecules expressed by cells. MiaPaCa-2 and PANC-1 cells which expressed neither E-cadherin nor DSG/DSC proteins were unable to form MCTS. Thus, expression of either cadherin is sufficient for MCTS formation.