Hyperthermic suppression of a genetically programmed melanoma in hybrids of fishes: genus Xiphophorus.

In fishes of the genus Xiphophorus, hybrid offspring of the spotted dorsal female platyfish, X. maculatus, and male swordtails, X. helleri, are genetically programmed to develop melanoma when raised at ambient laboratory temperatures. When these hybrid offspring were raised under hyperthermic conditions, there was no development of melanoma. Electron microscopy revealed degenerative changes in the melanocytes of heat-treated hybrids not seen in hybrids raised at ambient temperatures. The platyfish-swordtail melanoma system represents an appropriate model for the investigation of the relationship between hyperthermia and melanoma formation and treatment in poikilothermic vertebrates.