Morphogenesis and biological significance of spindle cell transformation in a spindle cell carcinoma

Our study investigated the histogenesis and biological significance of spindle cell carcinoma (SpCC) by comparing with moderately-well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cell lines. Snail mRNA expression was readily detectable in the SpCC cell line, while E-cadherin was undetectable. SpCC cells showed lower proliferative and invasive activities than two other SCC cell lines. Culturing under air–liquid interface conditions promoted squamous cell differentiation, whereas fibroblastic differentiation after submerged culture with collagen, suggesting that the microenvironment may be a regulating factor of spindle cell differentiation as well as Snail expression and spindle cell change may not always entail the invasive behavior.