Comparison of lipids between tumor and normal hamster melanosomes.

A study of lipid components of melanosomes isolated from eye pigment tissues and pigmented melanoma type Bomirski line Ma of Syrian hamster by thin-layer chromatography is described. Tumor melanosomes contained 8-10% of total lipids, approximately one half of which were phospholipids. Eye melanosomes contained only 3-4% of total lipids, among which no phospholipids could be detected. Cholesterol, cholesteryl esters, free fatty acids and triacylglycerols were found in the fraction of neutral lipids. Phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and sphingomyelin constituted 70-80% of the phospholipid fraction.