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Presents abstracts of studies on pigment cells. Genetics and genomics of pigment type-switching; Expression and regulatory elements of the human melanocortin 1 receptor; Maturation and degradation of tyrosinase in the early secretory pathway.

To proliferate in vitro, normal melanocytes, unlike normal fibroblasts, require specific growth factors in addition to those supplied in serum. The substances that promote melanocyte proliferation, such as 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and stimulators of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), also promote pigmentation. Consequently, cell division and expression of at least some differentiated functions are not mutually exclusive for melanocytes. At present, the only known natural growth factor that can replace TPA in normal human melanocyte cultures is basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Like TPA, bFGF is effective, most of the time, only in the presence of added cAMP. Some preparations of bFGF, however, may have a highly labile, intrinsinc cAMP stimulatory activity. It is thus possible that bFGF can assume two forms, dependent on and independent of cAMP stimulatory activity. Alternatively, a second factor may exist in pituitary glands that co-purifies with bFGF but deteriorates with storage. Abnormal melanocytes in culture, such as those derived from dysplastic nevi and primary melanomas, depend on the specific factors (bFGF and cAMP), whereas melanocytes from metastatic melanomas do not [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The BULT melanoma originated at Brown University as a spontaneous, small black nodule on the tail of an adult female mouse of the LT/Ch strain. Histological examination of a portion of the tumor indicated that it was intradermal and consisted predominantly of heavily melanized, ovoid to fusiform cells with melanin-laden macrophages scattered among them. The BULT melanoma has been maintained in LT/Ch mice for approximately 5 years by periodic transplantation, at first subcutaneously on the flanks and, more recently, intramuscularly in the hind legs. The shift in transplantation site was made following a marked decline in the growth of subcutaneous grafts. The transplants have retained the uniform deep-black melanization and general histology of the primary melanoma. Numerous melanosomes at all stages of development are found within the melanoma cells. DOPA-positive cytoplasmic vesicles are abundant. Occasional autophagic vacuoles containing clusters of melanosomes are also present. A few metastases from the transplanted melanoma have been observed in lymph nodes and on one occasion in the lungs. When grown in vitro, BULT melanoma cells do not require special growth promoting agents (e.g., TPA; cAMP) in order to proliferate. The BULT melanoma differs in one or more respects from each of the other three transplantable spontaneous mouse melanomas widely used in cancer research. In addition, it arose in a strain of mice characterized by the spontaneous death of melanocytes while the latter are engaged in synthesizing eumelanin within hair follicles. Karyotypic analysis of cultured cells showed a modal chromosome number of 68 with a range of 58-72 chromosomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]