Immunochemical delineation of an oncofetal antigen on normal and simian virus 40-transformed human fetal melanocytes.

Human melanoma cells of uveal origin shed 94,000- and 240,000-dalton glycoproteins in common with most melanoma cell lines of dermal origin. Normal human melanocytes derived from fetal uvea shed a 90,000-dalton glycoprotein that was found to be immunologically identical with the 94,000-dalton glycoprotein of melanoma cells. Expression of this 90,000-dalton molecule was confined to fetal cells of ectodermal origin. After simian virus 40 (SV40) transformation of human fetal melanocytes, there was an apparent increase in molecular size of this component to 94,000 daltons. In contrast, the 240,000-dalton glycoprotein was not synthesized or shed by uninfected or SV40-transformed fetal melanocytes. These data suggest that the 94,000-dalton glycoprotein is an oncofetal antigen of ectodermal origin.