Biological properties associated with the enhanced lung-colonizing potential in a B16 murine melanoma line grown in a medium conditioned by syngeneic Corynebacterium parvum-elicited macrophages.

A previous study by our laboratory showed that the peritoneal murine Corynebacterium parnum-elicited macrophages released into their growth medium an activity which enhanced the ability of B16-F10 melanoma cells to form experimental metastases in the lung of syngeneic mice. In the present study, we used a clone of B16-F10 line (F10-M3 cells) to investigate whether the increase in lung-colonizing potential due to the pro-clonogenic activity released by C. parvum-elicited macrophages was associated with biological properties characteristic of a metastatic phenotype. We have found that the pulmonary retention, growth rate in lung parenchyma, invasiveness through Matrigel, adhesiveness to IL-1-activated endothelium and MHC class I expression were increased in F10-M3 cells stimulated by the macrophage pro-clonogenic activity. By using an in vitro experimental protocol, the enhancement of lung-colonizing potential in the stimulated melanoma cells turned out to be a transient phenomenon as was the increase of invasiveness through Matrigel and the higher expression of MHC class I antigens. In conclusion, the melanoma cells stimulated by the pro-clonogenic activity released by C. parvum-elicited macrophages showed changes in biological parameters which are relevant to metastatic diffusion. These changes appeared as a temporary phenomenon which sustains the view that the metastatic phenotype represents a transient biological character influenced by host factors.