HMV-II

Vaginal Mucosal Melanoma Cell Activation in Response to Photon or Carbon Ion Irradiation

Primary gynecological melanomas are rare and more lethal than cutaneous forms; whether mucosal melanocytes modulate radiosensitivity is unknown. Charalampopoulou et al. examined how photon vs carbon-ion irradiation affects morphology, melanogenesis and motility of human vaginal-mucosal HMV-II melanoma cells.

Under standard culture conditions, HMV-II melanoma cells maintained epithelial morphology with triangular or spindle-shaped bodies and short processes. Following XRT or CIRT exposure, cells exhibited dose- and radiation-type-dependent morphological activation characterized by dendrite formation and elongated morphology (Fig. 1a-c). After photon irradiation, average dendrite length increased progressively with dose, peaking at 6 Gy and declining at 8-10 Gy by 24 h; this morphology persisted for 10 days (Fig. 1d). Carbon ion irradiation produced less pronounced changes at 24 h, but dendrite elongation emerged by 48 h, similarly peaking at 6 Gy and maintaining this pattern through day 10 (Fig. 1e). Notably, XRT induced significantly greater dendrite elongation than CIRT at all time points (Fig. 1f).