Abstract: Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of cancer cell fusion in melanoma proliferation and the underlying mechanism. Methods Stable melanoma fusion cells were obtained by the polyethylene glycol (PEG) fusion method and isolated by the fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). Cell proliferation rate was detected by cell culture in vitro and counting the cell number everyday. Differentially expressed genes between the stable melanoma fusion hybrids and the parental cells were detected by the Affymatrix gene chip following the gene function analysis by Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA). Protein expression was analyzed by western blot. Results Stable melanoma fusion cells were successfully obtained by the PEG fusion method. The proliferation rate of fusion hybrids was significantly decreased compared to the parental melanoma cells. Gene chip and the following gene function analyses showed that PI3K-AKT pathway related to cell proliferation was significantly down-regulated in the melanoma fusion hybrids. Moreover, the expression of phospho-S6 in the fusion hybrids significantly decreased. Conclusions Cell fusion reduced melanoma cell proliferation through the PI3K-AKT pathway.

Key words: cell fusion, melanoma, proliferation