Melanoma cell growth inhibition and melanocortin receptor downregulation induced by selective and non-selective retinoids.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of retinoid analogues with different retinoid receptor specificity on the growth of human D10 and Cloudman S91 mouse melanoma cells. We compared the growth inhibitory effects with the ability of retinoids to downregulate cell surface expression of the melanocortin receptor (MC1-R). Retinoic acid receptor (RAR)-gamma-selective retinoids exerted the most prominent growth effects, with up to 68% and 69% inhibition in D10 and S91 cells, respectively. A retinoid X receptor (RXR)-selective compound inhibited cell growth by only 14% and 23% in D10 and S91 cells, respectively. Growth inhibition by RARalpha- and RARbeta-selective compounds was below 10% in both cells. In D10 cells, MC1-R downregulation was also induced most effectively by an RARgamma-selective retinoid (84% relative to controls). RARalpha-, RARbeta-and RXR-selective agonists induced only 16-24% MC1-R downregulation in these cells. The pattern for MC1-R downregulation was completely different in S91 cells. The RXR-selective compound was the most active (85%), followed by the RARalpha-selective agonist (58%), the RARgamma-selective compound (47%), and finally by the RARbeta-selective agonist (29%). We conclude that RARgamma-selective retinoids may have potential as therapeutic agents in melanoma. Different selectivity profiles for growth inhibition and MC1-R downregulation in S91 cells suggest that these two retinoid effects are not directly dependent on each other.