Tumor microenvironment for melanoma cells

Abstract

Melanoma represents an ideal experimental system to model the influence of the tumor microenvironment on neoplastic cells given that a rich collection of cell types is localized in the physiological environment. Melanoma cells actively interact with the tumor microenvironment in a bidirectional manner by orchestrating the normal cells. Human epidermal melanocytes can readily be isolated and used as a paradigm to understand the initiation and the initiation of their malignant counterparts, the melanoma cells. This chapter focuses on cell-cell communication between melanocytes and surrounding keratinocytes and fibroblasts and summarizes key growth factors and inflammatory cytokines that are important for melanocyte function and homeostasis. We will then propose a model of malignant transformation of melanocytes, in which microenvironmental signals play key roles.