Relationship between Melanogenicity and Malignancy in Malignant Melanoma Cells

ABSTRACT

Though the malignancy of a tumor is generally postulated to be affected by the degree of differentiation of tumor cells, the relationship between differentiation and malignancy of tumors has not been clearly elucidated. Using in vitro established mouse(B16) and human(IGR3) melanoma cell lines, we performed various in vitro and in vivo experiments to clarify the relationship between melanogenicity and malignancy. High and low melanin-producing clones were selected from both cell lines by the limiting dilution technique and their melanogenicities were confirmed by the determination of melanin quantity and tyrosinase activity along with electron microscopic examination. Selected clones from both cell lines revealed that low melanin-producing clones showed a slightly broader chromosomal distribution, a shorter doubling time with a higher DNA synthesis and a greater colony forming capacity in semi-solid agar medium than those of high melanin-producing clones. The low melanin-producing clone derived from B16 also had a lower tumor-take dose and a more rapid tumor-growth rate than the high melanin-producing counterpart following transplantation into syngeneic mice. These results support the concept that the melanogenicity and other biological characteristics associated with malignancy are inversely related in malignant melanoma cells.