Correlation between the radiosensitivity in vitro of clones and variants derived from a human melanoma cell line and their spontaneous metastatic potential in vivo.

With an experimental model of spontaneous lung metastases of human melanoma in immunosuppressed newborn rats, a large panel of clones and variants with different metastatic potential were derived from a single human melanoma parental cell line (M4Be). Seven clones and variants from M4Be were selected, respectively, for their low (parental, clone 1), intermediate (clones 2 and 3, subvariant 1-) and high (variant 1, subvariant 1+, clone 4) metastatic potential. This paper investigates the relationship between the in vivo metastatic potential of the eight cell lines and their sensitivity to ionizing radiation in vitro (range 0.05-7 Gy). The radiosensitivity was estimated from the mean inactivation dose, a parameter equal to the area under the survival curve plotted in linear coordinates. Examination of the eight survival curves, obtained with cells cultured for no more than five passages after defrost, shows that clone 1, subvariant 1- and the M4be parental line are the most radioresistant cells, clone 4 and subvariant 1+ are the most radiosensitive cells, while clones 2 and 3 and variant 1 showed an intermediate response to radiation. The metastatic potential in vivo of the parental line and the seven sublines is significantly correlated to their radiosensitivity in vitro: the higher the metastatic potential, the higher the radiosensitivity.