title: Expression of Multidrug Resistance Transporter ABCB5 in a Murine Model of Human Conjunctival Melanoma.
abstract: Conjunctival melanoma (CM) is a rare ocular malignancy with a high tendency to reoccur locally and with a high risk of metastatic disease. Metastases are often unresponsive to conventional treatment. Recently, an animal model was set up using human CM cells. Orthotopic xenografts from human CM were created by subconjunctival injection of three different CM cell lines into NOD.Cg-PrkdcscidIL2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ (NSG) mice. Subconjunctival injection of cultured CM cells led to excellent subconjunctival growth, but no metastases were found. When single-cell suspensions were obtained from the subconjunctival xenografts and passaged in vivo, all mice developed metastases. As recent findings indicate that cancer stem cells are linked to tumor recurrences, we used this new murine model to determine the expression of the stem cell marker ABCB5 during tumor progression. Expression of the ABCB5 protein was determined in three cell lines and during different stages of tumor development as observed in our model. All three cell lines contained a subpopulation of cells positive for ABCB5. During tumor development, expression of ABCB5 increased during phases of tumor expansion. Furthermore, expression of ABCB5 was increased in metastases. Using this model for CM, we were able to initiate metastatic spread and determine the expression of the stem cell marker ABCB5 during different stages of tumor development, identifying ABCB5 as a potential novel therapeutic target. This study illustrates the potential of our newly established murine model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Schepens Eye Research Institute and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Mass., USA ; Department of Ophthalmology, LUMC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nadine E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: de Waard
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Schepens Eye Research Institute and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Mass., USA.
authors.forename: Paraskevi E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Kolovou
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Schepens Eye Research Institute and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Mass., USA.
authors.forename: Sean P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: McGuire
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, LUMC, Leiden, The Netherlands ; Department of Ophthalmology, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Jinfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass., USA ; Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., USA.
authors.forename: Natasha Y
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.affiliation: Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., USA ; Transplant Research Program, Division of Nephrology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass., USA.
authors.forename: Markus H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Schepens Eye Research Institute and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Mass., USA ; Department of Ophthalmology, LUMC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Martine J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Jager
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Schepens Eye Research Institute and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Mass., USA.
authors.forename: Bruce R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Ksander
keywords: ABCB5; Conjunctival melanoma; Stem cells