The Effect of Glucocorticoid and Antiglucocorticoid Hormones on the Growth of Mouse Melanoma Cells

The facts about the role of glucocorticoids in malignant melanoma growth in vivo and in vitro are still controversial. There are a lot of data showing that glucocorticoids cause significant tumor growth inhibition in vivo. Several investigators have demonstrated growth inhibition with glucocorticoids in human melanoma cell lines. On the other hand, in B16 mouse melanoma cells glucocorticoids failed to inhibit the growth in vitro as they did in vivo (1). A dose-related glucocorticoid-induced inhibition has been noted by Benckhuijsen (2) and in serum-free media by Di Sorbo (3). Furthermore, an increase of certain proteins was detected upon glucocorticoid treatment in different B16 cell lines (1). In our previous experiments with different glucocorticoids the inhibition of B16/C3 mouse melanoma cell growth and increased melanin secretion have been observed (4).