Effects of gadolinium ions upon rat prostatic cancer cell lines of markedly different metastatic potential

The effects of gadolinium chloride, a non-specific blocker of mechanosensitive ion channels (MSICs), upon the motility and proliferation of two Dunning rat prostatic tumour cell lines of markedly different metastatic potential were investigated. Gadolinium (2–10 μM) caused a dose-dependent increase in the distance moved in ‘wound’ assays over a 48-h testing period. The highly metastatic MAT-LyLu cell line was significantly more sensitive to Gd3+, the weakly metastatic AT-2 cells responding only at the highest concentration (10 μM) used. There was no effect on the cells’ proliferative rates. These data suggest that mechanosensitive channels could play a role in metastasis by modulating cell migration.