Newswise — Dartmouth researchers have developed a protocol that permits cells harvested from melanoma tumors in mice to grow readily in cell culture. Their findings were published in an article, Multiple murine BRafV600E melanoma cell lines with sensitivity to PLX4032, in the January 25, 2014 issue of Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research.

“We anticipate that these cell lines will be extremely useful to many investigators who use mouse melanoma as a model system,” said Constance E. Brinckerhoff, PhD, professor of Medicine and of Biochemistry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College and a member of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) Mechanism Research Program.

There is a lack of mouse cell lines that harbor the BRAF mutation that is so prevalent in human melanomas, and the cell lines that are available grow slowly in culture and are not representative of human melanoma cell lines. Detailed experiments on molecular mechanisms controlling mouse cell line behavior have been difficult because the currently available mouse cell lines do not grow well in culture.

The Geisel researchers are the first to have developed a protocol that permits mouse melanoma cells to be harvested from tumors in the mice and to grow readily in cell culture. Importantly, these cell lines are genetically compatible with a strain of mice that are immunologically competent, while human cells need to be placed into immunologically weakened mice in order to grow. Thus, the ability to study these mouse melanoma cell lines both in culture and in mice with an intact immune system is an experimental advantage.

This research was funded, in part, by: NIH P30 - Center for Molecular, Cellular and Translational Research (Cancer Center Training Grant CA009658 (MHJ/CEB); NIH T32 – Immunology Training Grant AI007363 (MHJ/DWM); NIH T32 – Molecular and Cellular Biology Training Grant GM00874 (SMS/MJT); NIH R01 AR-26599 and CA-77267 (CEB); NIH R01 CA120777 (MJT); The American Cancer Society RSG LIB-121864 (MJT); the Melanoma Research Alliance Development Award (MJT); Hitchcock Foundation Pilot Studies Award (DWM and CEB); and NIH R01 CA134799 (DWM). About Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center combines advanced cancer research at Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine with patient-centered cancer care provided at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock regional locations in Manchester, Nashua, and Keene, NH, and St. Johnsbury, VT, and at 12 partner hospitals throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. It is one of 41 centers nationwide to earn the National Cancer Institute’s “Comprehensive Cancer Center” designation. Learn more about Norris Cotton Cancer Center research, programs, and clinical trials online at cancer.dartmouth.edu.