Lipid composition in melanosomes of tumor- and chorioidea cells.

The lipid composition of melanosomes from hamster and bovine eye pigmented tissues (chorioidea) and of melanosomes from Harding-Passey mouse melanomas, hamster melanomas Ma and human liver melanoma metastases was investigated. The lipid composition of melanosomes was analogous to that of other subcellular melanocytic fractions as it had been reported in literature. The main difference between tumor and chorioidea melanosomes consisted in the absence of phospholipids in the latter case, other differences were quantitative. The role of melanosomes in melanomas should not be different from that in normal pigmented tissues.