Novel metastatic models of human esophageal adenocarcinoma highlight the importance of E-cadherin in cancer metastasis. Homo sapiens

We report the identification of FLO-1, and derivation of its isogenic companion FLO-1LM, as two spontaneously metastatic cell line models of human esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). We performed genome-wide RNAseq comparing FLO-1LM and FLO-1 parental cells to gain molecular insights into the phenotypic differences between these two cell lines. Using an adjusted p-value<0.05, a total of 375 (307 downregulated, 68 upregulated) genes were differentially regulated in FLO-1LM compared with parental cells. Genome-wide RNAseq profiling revealed significant enrichment of metastasis-related pathways in FLO-1LM cells, many of which are also evident in patient samples. Moreover, CDH1, which encodes the adhesion molecule E-cadherin, was the most significantly downregulated gene in FLO-1LM compared to FLO-1. Overall design: Genome-wide RNAseq comparing FLO-1LM and FLO-1 parental cells