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Differentiation and the tumorigenic and metastatic phenotype of murine melanoma cells
Author(s) -
Kameyama Koichiro,
Vieira Wilfred D.,
Tsukamoto Katsuhiko,
Law Lloyd W.,
Hearing Vincent J.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910450627
Subject(s) - melanoma , cell culture , cancer research , receptor , in vitro , biology , cell , antigen , immunology , endocrinology , medicine , biochemistry , genetics
Using B16 F10 murine melanoma cells and sublines generated from the JB/MS melanoma which exhibit various degrees of melanogenesis, the relationships among differentiation, tumorigenicity, and metastatic potential were examined. The effect of melanocyte‐stimulating hormone (MSH), which specifically stimulates differentiation of melanocytes, was also studied. All melanoma lines tested were capable of growing as experimental pulmonary metastases but, surprisingly, the undifferentiated and amelanotic JB/MS‐w cells failed to grow as primary subcutaneous tumors. JB/MS‐w cells, which had few surface MSH receptors, did not respond to MSH with an increase in melanin production, unlike the other cell lines. Although in vitro treatment with MSH did not change the rates of growth of primary tumors by these cell lines, such treatment decreased the number of pulmonary metastases from B16 F10, JB/MS cells, JB/MS‐b1 cells and JB/MS‐w cells. Conversely, MSH treatment significantly increased the rates of pulmonary metastases from JB/MS‐p cells. The expression of surface melanoma antigens, urokinase‐type plasminogen activity and susceptibility to natural killer cells were examined. MSH did not significantly alter surface melanoma antigen expression, but increased the natural killer cell susceptibility of B16 F10, JB/MS and JB/MS‐b1 cells, cells which possess abundant surface MSH receptors. There was an inverse correlation between differentiation (pigmentation) and proliferation in vitro , and the more pigmented melanoma cells (B16 F10, JB/MS and JB/MS‐b1) expressed relatively lower levels of class‐1 MHC, relatively higher levels of class‐11 MHC and the highest metastatic capacity. These results demonstrate that MSH possesses the capacity to regulate not only melanogenesis, but also other factors critical to the metastatic growth of the cells.