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Glioblastoma is an aggressive malignant brain tumor characterized by highly invasive characteristics. The invasive process involves migration of the cells from main tumor mass into surrounding normal tissue by secretion of matrix degrading enzymes. Matrix metalloproteinases are shown to be highly upregulated in glioma, which correlates well with their invasive nature. Among the 24 types of MMPs, MMP-2, MMP-9, and MT1-MMP were shown to be upregulated in gliomas. Previous studies have shown that genistein, a soy isoflavone, inhibits glioblastoma invasion in an in vitro co-culture model. We have used Calbiochem in vitro invasion assay model, which consists of transwell plates with culture inserts. Human glioblastoma cells (U87MG) are added to the upper chamber, and invasion of cells through the insert is measured. Genistein and Biochanin A are the two isoflavones that are used in this study. Our results show that genistein at 20μM and Biochanin A at 50μM induced statistically significant decrease in invasion when compared to control. Our results also show that at this concentration isoflavones also decreased protein expression and activities of matrix metalloproteinases. Thus our results suggest that biochanin A along with genistein may be used to further evaluate their effect on in vivo invasion. Supported by Faculty Research Committee grant (FRC), Idaho State University, Idaho Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) research program, and Graduate Student Research and Scholarship Committee (S03-21) grant.

[Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 46, 2005]