Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases Commons^™

Identification And Phenotypic Plasticity Of Metastatic Cells In A Mouse Model Of Melanoma, Xiaoshuang Li

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer due to its high propensity to metastasize and resistance to current therapies. We have created a spontaneous mouse model of metastatic melanoma (Dct-Grm1/K5-Edn3) where metastasis to the lungs is 80% penetrant. The primary tumors of these mice present cellular heterogeneity with cells at varying levels of differentiation. The main goal of this study was to determine the metastatic potential of the primary tumor resident Tyrosinase positive cells and evaluate the dynamic phenotypic changes as those cells move from the primary tumors to the sites of metastasis. To accomplish this aim …