Relationship between the expression of MTA-1 gene and the metastasis and invasion in human osteosarcoma. To compare the expression level of metastasis associated-1 (MTA1) gene in high and low metastatic human osteosarcoma cell lines and examine the relationship of MTA1 expression and the metastasis potentiality of osteosarcoma cells, the expression of MTA1 in MG-63 osteosarcoma cell lines with high and low metastasis potential was detected by semiquantitative TR-PCR. Boyden chamber invasion assay was used to evaluate the invasive capacity in vitro in two osteosarcoma cell lines. The low metastasis MG-63 cells were transfected with MTA1 full-length cDNA expression plasmid by lipofectamine and the changes of MTA1 expression and in vitro invasion potential were examined after the transfection. Our results showed that MG63 cell line with high metastasis potential expressed significantly higher MTA1 than that of MG63 cells with low metastasis as reavealed by RT-PCR. The invasion potential of low metastasis MG63 cell line was increased after MTA1 gene transfection. It is concluded that there may be a relationship between MTA 1 and invasive potentiality of human osteosarcoma cells, and the mechanism of MTA1 in osteosarcoma metastasis and its possible role in associated gene therapy deserve further study.