Comparative study of experimental ocular melanoma using two implantation techniques of B16-F10 melanocytes.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this work was to evaluate the behaviour of B16-F10 melanoma cell cultures implanted in the anterior chamber of the eye of New Zealand white rabbits by studying the clinical-pathological and ultrastructural characteristics of the lesions.

METHODS

One group (A) (consisting of 30 rabbits) was transclerally inoculated (1 mm from sclero-corneal limbus) with 4 x 10(6) melanocytes and another group (B) (also 30 animals) was inoculated once per week for 3 consecutive weeks with 5 x 10(6) cells (total 15 x 10(6)); 30 animals acted as the control group (C). All the lesions were processed for optic and electronic microscopy.

RESULTS

Tumoral growth in group A was 43% (13/30) and in group B 80% (24/30). All lesions were pigmented and none perforated the eyeball. Microscopically, they were a mixture of epithelioid and fusiform cells disposed around the blood vessels. Ultrastructurally, the presence of melanosomes in different stages of maturation and aberrant melanosomes were characteristic.

CONCLUSION

We suggest that the transcleral inoculation of 15 X 10(6) B16-F10 melanocytes into the anterior chamber of the eye of New Zealand white rabbits may be a valid and reproducible method for obtaining an experimental ocular melanoma model.