Decay of hormone responsiveness in mouse melanoma cells in culture as a function of cell density

Cloudman S91 mouse melanoma cells lose their ability to demonstrate an MSH-induced increase in tyrosinase activity as cell density increases. This loss in hormone responsiveness occurs before confluency is reached and cannot be reversed by exposure of cells to increasing concentrations of MSH. The failure of high-density cultures to respond to MSH is apparently not the result of an inability of MSH to stimulate cAMP production, since either low- or high-density cultures exposed to MSH demonstrate equivalent increases in intracellular levels of cAMP. Further, neither theophylline (1mM), dibutyryl cyclic AMP (10(-4)M), or prostaglandin E1 (10(-6)M) is effective in stimulating tyrosinase activity in melanoma cells cultured at densities exceeding 6 X 10(4) cells/cm2. This finding suggests that the decay of hormone responsiveness occurs at a cellular site distal to cAMP production. The decrease in tyrosinase stimulation by MSH as cell density increases is also apparently not the result of an increase in activity of any soluble inhibitor of the enzyme, for cytosol preparations from high-density cultures (10(5) cells/cm2) fail to inhibit tyrosinase activity in cell homogenates from low-density cultures treated with MSH.