Comparative study of experimental ocular melanoma using two implantation techniques of B16-F10 melanocytes.

Objective: The aim of this work was to evaluate the behaviour of B16-F10 melanoma cell cultures implanted in the anterior chamber of the eye of New Zealand white rabbits by studying the clinical-pathological and ultrastructural characteristics of the lesions.
Methods: One group (A) (consisting of 30 rabbits) was transclerally inoculated (1 mm from sclero-corneal limbus) with 4 x 10(6) melanocytes and another group (B) (also 30 animals) was inoculated once per week for 3 consecutive weeks with 5 x 10(6) cells (total 15 x 10(6)); 30 animals acted as the control group (C). All the lesions were processed for optic and electronic microscopy.
Results: Tumoral growth in group A was 43% (13/30) and in group B 80% (24/30). All lesions were pigmented and none perforated the eyeball. Microscopically, they were a mixture of epithelioid and fusiform cells disposed around the blood vessels. Ultrastructurally, the presence of melanosomes in different stages of maturation and aberrant melanosomes were characteristic.
Conclusion: We suggest that the transcleral inoculation of 15 X 10(6) B16-F10 melanocytes into the anterior chamber of the eye of New Zealand white rabbits may be a valid and reproducible method for obtaining an experimental ocular melanoma model.