Bomirski melanomas - a versatile and powerful model for pigment cell and melanoma research (review).

Models of animal melanoma are still indispensable tools in oncological research because they can be studied in syngeneic hosts while human melanomas cannot. One such model is a family of melanomas which originated in 1959 from a spontaneous melanotic melanoma of the skin in Syrian hamster, the Bomirski melanomas. Currently, it consists of 5 transplantable in vivo-variants (Ma, Ab, MI, MI-B and Ab455) and several cell lines derived from Ab amelanotic and Ma melanotic tumors. Here we present the Bomirski family of melanomas as an excellent model to study regulatory mechanisms governing melanogenesis, differentiation and intermediary metabolism in melanocytes, and as a good animal model for developing and testing potential melanoma vaccines.