B16 Melanoma

B16 melanoma is a murine tumor cell line used for research as a model for human skin cancers. These cells are useful models for the study of metastasis and solid tumor formation, and were one of the first effective murine tools for metastasis research. They were discovered and maintained in the Jackson Laboratories in Maine in 1954 when a tumor developed naturally behind the ear of a C57BL mouse. The cells were resected, transplanted, and maintained in vivo in that lab, and still are today. Because they originate in melanin producing epithelia of mice, B16 cells are easy to track in vivo post-transplantation. And their fidelity of metastasis from skin to lung, liver, and spleen make them strong explanatory factors in the "seed and soil" theory of metastasis, as well as making them useful and predictable tools to study heretofore unexplained metastatic pathways.