Interstitial flow drives CXCR4-dependent hepatocellular carcinoma cell invasion

The mechanism of flow-induced hepatocellular carcinoma cell invasion is examined in this study. The concept of autologous chemotaxis drives the focus on utilizing 3-D microenvironments to mimic and better understand the mechanism behind invasion in cancer cells. Invasion assays utilizing Boyden chambers containing a Matrigel/Type I rat tail collagen matrix simulates a 3-D microenvironment. Hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines Huh7 and MHCC97H displayed significant invasion due to interstitial flow. The increased presence of chemokine receptor CXCR4 is examined in two HCC cell lines: HepG2 and Huh7. These results support the claim that CXCR4 plays a role in cancer cell invasion and could potentially serve to better understand the mechanism of how interstitial flow increases HCC cell invasion.