The purpose of this study was to demonstrate by ISH the presence of IL-8 mRNA, and by immunohistochemistry (IHC) the presence of the chemokine IL-8 and the distribution of infiltrating macrophages in subcutaneous melanomas in the same tumor. IL-8 is a multifunctional cytokine produced by melanoma cells, activated macrophages and monocytes and it has been shown to be a growth and angiogenic factor for tumor cells. More recently it was shown that constitutive expression of IL-8 correlated directly with metastatic potential of human melanoma cells in nude mice. IL-8 content of a solid tumor as determined by Western blot analysis does not take into account the contribution of macrophages. Previous studies showed that murine tumors contain many infiltrating cells interspersed among tumor cells whereas human tumors growing in nude mice exhibit macrophages at the periphery or between tumor islands. In this study we demonstrate the expression of IL-8 and the distribution of macrophages by immunoperoxidase assay and IL-8 mRNA by ISH.
