ABSTRACT

No abstract

The NBT‐II rat bladder carcinoma cell line, which displays epithelial to mesenchymal transition or EMT in response to FGF‐1 stimulation, was used to study the interrelationships between cell cycle and cell scattering and locomotion. Time‐lapse video microscopy experiments were performed with asynchronous growing cells and lovastatin‐arrested cells. FGF‐1 stimulation induced cell movement in cells in all phases of the cell cycle, except G2 + M phase, in which cells did not respond to stimulation. The delay between cell stimulation and cell movement depended on the age of the cell at the beginning of cell stimulation: cells less than 4 h old when stimulated by FGF‐1 had a 1‐h delay whereas cells more than 4 h old had a 3‐h delay. Cells stimulated before they were 4 h old were temporarily arrested in their cell cycle progression. Older cells underwent mitosis on schedule. Lovastatin‐treated cells were shown to be synchronized in the G1 phase and to migrate simultaneously after FGF‐1 stimulation. These results indicate that the G1 phase was a critical phase for FGF‐1 induced cell migation during epithelial to fibroblastoid transition. Cell Motil. Cytoskeleton 43:288–295, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.