Cell type conversion in a mouse melanoma cell clone.
A melanoma cell clone was isolated from cultured B16 mouse melanoma cells. This clone, conv, which was characterized by rounded and spindle-shaped cell morphology, was not highly melanotic under the usual culture condition but had high tyrosinase (dopa oxidase) activity. When the cells were seeded to form colonies on a plastic culture dish in Eagle's minimum essential medium supplemented with 10% bovine calf serum, two kinds of cell types always appeared. One was cytochemically dopa-positive and spindle-shaped (S type cell) with the same phenotypes as those of the parental cells. The other was dopa-negative and fibroblastlike (F type cell) containing no melanosomes. It was observed that the conversion from S type to F type occurred with a high frequency. The conversion from F type to S type also occurred but with a low frequency.
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000473:pathology; D008543:Melanins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008545:Melanoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase / Q000378:metabolism; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000473:pathology; D010641:Phenotype
D008543:Melanins; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase