Cooperative function of oncogenic MAPK signaling and the loss of Pten for melanoma migration through the formation of lamellipodia.

The combination of oncogenes and tumor suppressors is involved in cancer development; however, it is still unknown whether their combination plays a critical role in cancer metastasis. We herein investigated whether genetic combinations affected cell migration ability by establishing the immortalized melanocytes, melan-a cells, with an oncogene, either BRAF or GNA11, and the loss of mouse Pten. The loss of mouse Pten or human PTEN increased the cell migration ability of our established cells and human melanoma cell lines with oncogenic MAPK signaling and the BRAF or NRAS background, but not with the GNA11 background or no oncogenes.