Cutaneous malignant melanoma is one of the most lethal types of skin cancer. Its progression passes through several steps, leading to the appearance of a new population of cells with aggressive biological potential. Here, we focused on the nano-characterization of two different melanoma cell lines with similar morphological appearance but different metastatic potential, namely, WM115 from vertical growth phase (VGP) and WM266-4 derived from metastasis to skin. The first cell line represents cells that progressed to the VGP, while the WM266-4 cell line denotes cells from the metastasis to skin. Exploring with a combination of atomic force and fluorescence microscopes, our goal was to identify cell surface characteristics in both cell lines that may determine differences in the cellular nano-mechanical properties. Cell elasticity was found to be affected by the presence of F-actin-based flexible ridges, rich in F-actin co-localized with β1 integrins in the studied cell lines. These results point out how progressive changes in the surface structure of melanoma cells can affect their bionanomechanical properties.

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