Disseminated melanoma cells transdifferentiate into endothelial cells in intravascular niches at metastatic sites (Li et al. 2020, Cell Reports)

Here, we combined lineage tracing in a newly developed spontaneous metastatic mouse model of melanoma, advanced imaging and single-cell RNA-sequencing approaches to search for (patho) physiologically-relevant melanoma cellular states. We identified a population of reporter-positive melanoma cells located in intravascular niches of various metastatic organs. These intravascular metastatic cells were dormant, negative for characteristic melanoma markers and acquired endothelial cell markers. We RNA-sequenced (3' v2 10x Genomics) about 6.5k methanol fixed single cells of a melanoma infiltrated lymph node using the murine Tyr::NRASQ61K;Ink4a−/− melanoma model.