Screening for metastasis-related genes in mouse melanoma cells through sequential tail vein injection

Tumor metastasis, responsible for approximately 90% of cancer-associated mortality, remains poorly understood. Here in this study we employed a melanoma lung metastasis model to screen for metastasis-related genes. By sequential tail vein injection of mouse melanoma B16F10 cells and the subsequently derived cells from lung metastasis into BALB/c mice, we successfully obtained highly metastatic B16F15 cells after five rounds of in vivo screening. RNA-sequencing analysis of B16F15 and B16F10 cells revealed a number of differentially expressed genes, some of these genes have previously been associated with tumor metastasis while others are novel discoveries. The identification of these metastasis-related genes not only improve our understanding of the metastasis mechanisms, but also provide potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for metastatic melanoma.