Natural killer cells and pigment epithelial-derived factor control the infiltrative and nodular growth of hepatic metastases in an Orthotopic murine model of ocular melanoma

Background Metastases account for 90% of all cancer-related deaths, becoming a therapeutic problem. Approximately 50% of all uveal melanoma (UM) patients will develop metastases, mainly in the liver. Post-mortem analyses of livers from metastatic UM patients showed two different metastatic growth patterns: infiltrative and nodular. The infiltrative pattern exhibits tumor infiltration directly to the hepatic lobule and minimal angiogenesis. The nodular pattern shows clusters of tumor cells around the portal venules that efface the liver parenchyma. We recently demonstrated Natural Killer (NK) cells play a pivotal role in the control of hepatic metastases and the pigment epithelial-derived factor (PEDF) controls angiogenesis in the liver using our established ocular melanoma animal model. In this study we investigated the role of NK cells and PEDF in the development of metastatic growth patterns, as this can contribute to the development of novel therapeutics specific towards each growth pattern. Methods We utilize our established ocular melanoma animal model by inoculation of B16-LS9 melanoma cells into C57BL/6J mice (WT), anti-asialo GM1-treated C57BL/6J mice (NK-depleted), and PEDF-/- C57BL/6J mice. Three weeks after inoculation we evaluated the metastatic growth patterns and stratified them based of the numbers of tumor cells. To evaluate angiogenesis the mean vascular density (MVD) was calculated. The immune compartment of the liver was analyzed by flow cytometry. Results Our in vivo work showed two distinct metastatic growth patterns, the infiltrative and nodular, recapitulating the post-mortem analyses on human liver tissue. We discovered NK cells control the infiltrative growth. In contrast, PEDF controlled anti-angiogenic responses, showing higher MVD values compared to NK-depleted and WT animals. The myeloid lineage, comprised of monocytes, macrophages, and myeloid-derived suppressor cells, was reduced in the absence of NK cells or PEDF. Conclusions Our animal model recapitulates the metastatic growth patterns observed in the human disease. We demonstrated a role for NK cells in the development of the infiltrative growth pattern, and a role for PEDF in the development of the nodular pattern. The understanding of the complexity associated with the metastatic progression has profound clinical implications in the diagnostic and disease-management as we can develop and direct more effective therapies.