title: Cell elasticity is an important indicator of the metastatic phenotype of melanoma cells.
abstract: The relationship between melanin pigmentation and metastatic phenotype of melanoma cells is an intricate issue, which needs to be unambiguously determined to fully understand the process of metastasis of malignant melanoma. Despite significant research efforts undertaken to solve this problem, the outcomes are far from being satisfying. Importantly, none of the proposed explanations takes into consideration biophysical aspects of the phenomenon such as cell elasticity. Recently, we have demonstrated that melanin granules dramatically modify elastic properties of pigmented melanoma cells. This prompted us to examine the mechanical effects of melanosomes on the transmigration abilities of melanoma cells. Here, we show for the first time that melanin granules inhibit transmigration abilities of melanoma cells in a number of granules dependent manner. Moreover, we demonstrate that the inhibitory effect of melanosomes is mechanical in nature. Results obtained in this study demonstrate that cell elasticity may play a key role in the efficiency of melanoma cells spread in vivo. Our findings may also contribute to better understanding of the process of metastasis of malignant melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics and Biophysics, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland; Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarna
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zadlo
authors.forename: Pawel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hermanowicz
authors.forename: Zbigniew
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Madeja
authors.forename: Kvetoslava
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Burda
authors.forename: Tadeusz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sarna
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D004548:Elasticity; D004578:Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy; D005780:Gelatin / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008543:Melanins / Q000378:metabolism; D008544:Melanocytes / Q000473:pathology; D008545:Melanoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D020460:Melanosomes / Q000378:metabolism*; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D010641:Phenotype; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D012880:Skin Pigmentation
chemical_list: D008543:Melanins; D005780:Gelatin
keywords: cell elasticity; invasion; melanin pigmentation; melanoma; metastatic phenotype