Inhibitory effect of RHAMM-target peptides on invasion of breast cancer cells
In this paper we investigated the effect of RHAMM-target peptides on the invasion of breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231). Cells were plated on gelatin substrate, Cy3-fluorescein-labeled, and then simultaneously processed with RHAMM-target peptides. Invasion of the cells was assessed by quantitative analysis of the area degradation of gelatin, using ImageJ software. We have found that RHAMM-target peptides inhibited the invasion of tumor cells by ~ 80% at a concentration of 10 μg/ ml (2x10<sup>-7</sup> M). By confocal microscopy we also showed that a population of cancer cells was heterogeneous and composed from small cells (invasive) and large cells, non-invasive cells with 4-5 nucleus in the cytoplasm. We found that treatment of cells with RHAMM-target peptides led to a decrease in the number of cells of large size and induced structural disorganization of actin and enhanced amount of stress-fibers of actin.