TRANSPLANTABLE MELANOMAS IN GERBILS (MERIONES-UNGUICULATUS) .1. ORIGIN, MORPHOLOGY AND GROWTH-RATE

A family of serially transplanted melanomas in gerbils ir described. T hese tumors were derived fi om the cutaneous melanotic melanoma that a rose in I of 44 gerbils injected postnatally with N-ethyl-N-nitrosoure a. It consists of a slow growing heavily melanotic parental line and t wo fast growing melanotic (FGM) and amelanotic (A-FGM) lines that appe ared abruptly during serial transplantation of the parental tumor. The FGM melanotic line originated after a sudden acceleration of growth o f the parental line during the 4th in vivo passage that was accompanie d by a decrease in both pigmentation and metastasizing potential The A -FGM derived from the depigmented tissue of the 7th in vivo passage of the FGM line and has been characterized by an amelanotic phenotype, a n increased metastasizing potential and similar growth rate to that of the FGM. Once established, both lines expressed considerable phenotyp ic stability during serial transplantation in gerbils. Thus, the Zeman UJ melanomas represent the first established family of transplantable melanomas in gerbils, which serve as a model for pigmented cell and m elanoma research and as a subject for a retrospective analysis of the phenomenon of tumor evolution.