DEHYDROLEUCODINE AFFECTS THE LEADING EDGE DYNAMIC OF HeLa CELLS

AMAYA C; COSTANTINO V; LOSINNO AD; LÓPEZ LA

Mendoza

Congreso; XLVIII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2012

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquimica

Because metastasis is one of the major causes of mortality in cancer patients, it is important to find effective drugs to stop the cancer cell migration. Dehydroleucodine (DhL) is a natural compound extracted from an herb known as matico (Artemisia douglasiana B). Previously we found that control HeLa cells migrate at a rate of 9.1 ± 0.8 μm/h and in presence of 20 μM DhL at 4.8 ± 0.4 μm/h. The cell migration leading edge consists of dynamic protrusions of the plasma membrane like lamellipodium, filopodium and ruffles that their formation are stimulated by a family of Rho proteins, where Rac1 is the most important. In this work we studied the effect of DhL in the leading edge dynamic of HeLa cells.We performed the wound healing assay and analyzed by video-microscopy, the frequency of lamellipodium and ruffles formation. We found that control cells produce 21.8 ± 1.6 lamellipodium/h and 21.8 ± 2.5 ruffles/h, while the treated cells 6.5 ± 1.3 lamellipodium/h and 8.2 ± 0.1 ruffles/h. In addition, by fluorescence microscopy we observed a greater accumulation of Rac1 in the membrane protrusions of DhL treated cells. These results indicate that DhL diminishes the HeLa cell migration velocity because inhibits the leading edge dynamic and modifies the distribution of Rac1.