Chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane model is a very sensitive assay for studying metastasis in vivo. In this organism, tissue barriers provide a real support to demonstrate the infiltration pathway of two human tumoral cell stains: a line of breast adenocarcinoma (MDA435), and a line of larynx epidermoid carcinoma (Hep2). We studied the metastatic potential of these cells to migrate from the upper chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) to the lower CAM, using as marker a human p53 primer, known for flanking exclusively a human region of exon 8. Our results show that both cell lines possess the ability to migrate from the inoculation site (on the upper CAM) to distant sites of the CAM (lower CAM). A difference in the pattern of migration among the two cell lines was also observed. While Hep2 cells showed a uniform migration from the inoculation site, MDA435 cell line showed a different migration pattern consistent with the idea of two different populations within the same cell line.

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