Allogeneic grafts of spontaneous canine melanomas and their cell culture strains in neonatal immunosuppressed dogs.

Canine melanoma has been transplanted to allogeneic neonatal recipients receiving continuous immunosuppression with anti-lymphocyte serum. One spontaneous melanoma was directly transplanted into 8 recipients, 6 of which developed tumours. 5/5 melanoma cell cultures were transplantable, with 19 tumour takes in 31 allogeneic recipients. Serial passage was performed in the case of two melanomas. Tumour development required continuous immunosuppression and the site was dependent upon the route of inoculation and other factors. Transplanted cell cultures were all amelanotic in vitro and in vivo, except in the case of one melanoma which reverted to a melanotic morphology after in vivo growth.