Jj. Yohn et al., HUMAN-MELANOMA CELLS EXPRESS FUNCTIONAL ENDOTHELIN-1 RECEPTORS, Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 201(1), 1994, pp. 449-457
Current evidence suggests that endothelium-derived factors enhance hum
an melanoma vascular invasion. Therefore, we studied human melanoma ce
ll expression of receptors to the endothelium-derived peptide, endothe
lin-1 (ET-1), and determined if they respond to ET-1 with proliferatio
n and chemokinesis. Human metastatic melanoma cell lines were found to
have specific, saturable, high affinity ET-1 binding. Northern analys
is and competitive inhibition studies confirmed that melanoma cells ex
press the ET(B) receptor isoform. Ten nanomolar ET-1 caused an 8.2 to
25.5-fold increase in intracellular free calcium. ET-1 was found to be
a weak mitogen for melanoma cells, however, melanoma cell chemokinesi
s was significantly increased by ET-1. These data suggest that ET-1 ma
y be involved in providing a chemokinetic and growth factor environmen
t that enhances perivascular proliferation and invasiveness of melanom
a cells. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.