Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 6, 2026

A Melanoma Patient-Derived Xenograft Model
Published on: May 20, 2019
Phenotypic heterogeneity among tumorigenic melanoma cells from patients that is reversible and not hierarchically
Elsa Quintana1, Mark Shackleton, Hannah R Foster
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Abstract:
We investigated whether melanoma is hierarchically organized into phenotypically distinct subpopulations of tumorigenic and nontumorigenic cells or whether most melanoma cells retain tumorigenic capacity, irrespective of their phenotype. We found 28% of single melanoma cells obtained directly from patients formed tumors in NOD/SCID IL2Rγ(null) mice. All stage II, III, and IV melanomas obtained directly from patients had common tumorigenic cells. All tumorigenic cells appeared to have unlimited tumorigenic capacity on serial transplantation. We were unable to find any large subpopulation of melanoma cells that lacked tumorigenic potential. None of 22 heterogeneously expressed markers, including CD271 and ABCB5, enriched tumorigenic cells. Some melanomas metastasized in mice, irrespective of whether they arose from CD271(-) or CD271(+) cells. Many markers appeared to be reversibly expressed by tumorigenic melanoma cells.
Related Concept Videos
Cancer Stem Cells and Tumor Maintenance
Cancer stem cells are thought to originate from tissue-specific normal stem cells or progenitor cells. The normal stem cells usually reside in...
Cancers Originate from Somatic Mutations in a Single Cell
Cancers Originate from Somatic Mutations in a Single Cell
Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells
Some of the advantages that cancer cells have on normal cells include - enhanced ability to divide without terminally differentiating, induce new blood vessel formation,...
Tumor Progression
Colon cancer is one of the best-documented examples of tumor progression. Early mutation in the APC gene in colon cells causes a small growth on the colon wall called a polyp. With time, this polyp grows into a benign, pre-cancerous tumor. Further...
Cancer

