Discrimination between human melanoma cell lines by fluorescence anisotropy

The fluorescence polarization of dipheylhexatriene (DPH) and trimethylammonium diphenylhexatriene (TMA-DPH) was measured when these markers were imbedded in cells of the human melanoma cell lines IGR37, IGR39, IGR3 and IGRA4, as well as in cells of the mouse melanoma cell lines B16 F1 and B16 F10. These measurements were performed on cell cultures which were grown on quartz plates as well as on cell suspensions. Considerable differences are found between the polarization values of the human cell lines that are related to their different origins. Differences for the plated cells are considerably greater than those for the suspensions. No differences in the polarization values were found for the two mouse melanoma lines. It is concluded that differences in lipid structural order can be found between cell types endowed with different metastasizing capabilities.