DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION PATTERNS OF S100A2, S100A4 AND S100A6 DURING PROGRESSION OF HUMAN-MALIGNANT MELANOMA

Three members of the S100 gene family, S100A2, S100A4 and S100A6, have been suggested to be associated with cancer development and metastasi s, To study their involvement in the tumorigenesis of human melanoma, we examined the mRNA expression levels of the 3 genes in 45 melanoma m etastases and in 20 benign nevi, Interestingly, whereas none of the me tastases expressed S100A2 mRNA, and the expression level was low in 6 cell lines established from primary melanomas, all nevi showed moderat e to high expression levels. Our results suggest that loss of S100A2 g ene expression may be an early event in melanoma development, A signif icant correlation was found between the expression of S100A6 in melano ma metastases and both the survival time of the patients and the thick ness of the corresponding primary tumors. For the S100A4 gene, however , no relationship was found between gene expression and clinical param eters of melanoma malignancy. The observed differences in expression p atterns of the 3 S100 genes suggest distinct roles of their products i n melanoma tumorigenesis and/or metastasis, and the results encourage studies to evaluate the potential value of using S100A2 and S100A6 exp ression levels as markers in the clinical management of melanoma, (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.