THE ROLE OF SPARC GENE IN THE TUMORIGENIC CAPACITY OF HUMAN-MELANOMA CELLS

Previous studies from our laboratory have demonstrated that human mela noma cell lines and tumors expressed high levels of the extracellular protein SPARC. In order to demonstrate its role in human melanoma prog ression, IIB-MEL-LES human melanoma cells were transfected with SPARC full length c-DNA in the antisense orientation. In vivo studies demons trated that all the control mice injected with parental cells develope d tumors, while none of the mice injected with cells obtained from thr ee different clones with diminished levels of SPARC expression, develo ped tumors. These studies suggest that SPARC may play a key role in hu man melanoma progression.