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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Patient Derived Cell Culture and Isolation of CD133+ Putative Cancer Stem Cells from Melanoma
Published on: March 13, 2013
Novel cell lines derived by long-term culture of primary uveal melanomas
Gordon Nareyeck1, Michael Zeschnigk, Norbert Bornfeld
1Department of Ophthalmology, Universitätsklinikum Essen, Essen, Germany. gordon.nareyeck@uni-due.de
Aims:
Uveal melanomas with or without monosomy 3 have different metastatic potentials. Therefore, it would be of great experimental importance to obtain cell lines of both groups - established and characterized under the same conditions.
Methods:
Long-term culture of biopsies derived from untreated primary uveal melanomas was performed, and the status of chromosome 3 in the tumour was determined. Characterization by immunocytochemistry and in vitro assays for cell migration, vasculogenic cord formation and proliferation were performed.
Results:
Establishment of cell lines succeeded in 6 out of 128 uveal melanomas. No histopathological feature was predictive for cultivation success. Two out of 4 cell lines derived from tumours with monosomy 3 were invasive in vitro. Both cell lines with disomy 3 showed higher proliferation levels (p = 0.002).
Conclusions:
The in vitro tendency for invasion did not correlate with the proliferative behaviour of uveal melanoma cell lines, but was partly associated with monosomy of chromosome 3.

