Tabulation of results on the heterogeneity of cellular characteristics among cells from B16 mouse melanoma cell lines with different colonization potentials. A summary of sixty reports.

The analysis of the complex, multi-step process of metastasis has been facilitated by the use of variant cell lines with differing metastatic or colonization potentials. In order to assess the full extent of the heterogeneity that can be expressed within a single cell line, the results of experiments describing individual ultrastructural, biochemical and behavioral aspects of the metastatic phenotype of B16 mouse melanoma cells have been collected. Of the 84 observations from 60 reports presented, there are 53 positive and 16 negative correlations with colonization after intravenous injection and/or metastatic potential, and 15 cases of no correlation. The tabulated results indicate that colony formation and metastasis can be associated with one or more of many different cellular traits so that genes responsible for each of these many traits could contribute to the metastatic phenotype.