Figure 1.

Western blot (A) and semiquantitative RT-PCR (B) analyses of endothelial-associated markers by human melanoma tumor cells. Western blot analysis of VE-cadherin (VE-cad), CD31, and TIE-1 in human cutaneous and uveal melanoma highly aggressive (*) and poorly aggressive cell lines (A). RT-PCR analysis of VE-cadherin (VE-cad) expression in similar melanoma cell samples as shown in A. Equal loading is demonstrated by glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) expression (B). The aggressive melanoma cells form primitive vasculogenic networks in three-dimensional collagen gels in vitro. (HUVECs were used as positive controls for VE-cadherin expression.)