ABSTRACT. The effect of two natural retinoids and synthetic retinoids with or without retinoid synergists on the proliferation and differentiation of 3 melanoma cell lines were investigated in vitro. No retinoids showed significant growth inhibitory effect on these cell lines when used alone, however, cell differentiation and significant growth inhibition were observed when treated with a combination of retinoids and a retinoid synergist. This study may suggest that, though the cells showed low susceptibilities when retinoids were treated alone, the combination of retinoids and a retinoid synergist may be effective to control the growth of canine melanoma cell lines. KEY WORDS: canine melanoma, retionoid.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 64(2): 169-172, 2002 Melanoma is a common neoplastic disease of dogs with variable biological behaviors. Melanomas account for 9-20% of skin tumors in dogs, and they are one of the most common malignant tumors of the oral cavity and of the digits in dogs [14]. Melanomas of the oral cavity are aggressive tumors that commonly metastasize to the regional lymph nodes and lung, and are poorly responsive to conventional therapy by the time they are discovered [14].The retinoids are a class of pharmacological agents consisting of vitamin A (retinol) and its derivatives. They have long been known to play a pivotal role in the development and maintenance of the normal epithelial tissue as well as growth, reproduction, immune function, and vision [23]. They have also been well recognized as promising anticancer agents. Preclinical studies, both in vitro and in vivo, suggest that retinoids may be effective in growth inhibition of many kinds of cancers [1,4,7,23], including melanoma [12,15,19,22]. The effects of retinoids are mainly mediated by two classes of nuclear receptors, retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs). Both RARs and RXRs are encoded by three distinct genes (α, β and γ) and are members of the steroid/thyroid hormone receptor superfamily that function as ligand-activated transcription factors [3,5,21]. The RXR-RAR heterodimers have significant roles in most of the retinoidal activities by binding to a variety of retinoic acid receptor elements (RAREs) and regulate their trans-activation activities. The RAR affinities, or the activation abilities of retinoids, correlate well with their biological activities [6,20]. Specific ligands for RXRs alone cannot activate the RXR-RAR heterodimers, but they do regulate the activities of retinoids allosterically by binding the RXR site of the heterodimers [6].All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and 9-cis retinoic acid (9CRA) are natural retinoids, and Am80 and HX630 are synthetic retinoids. ATRA activates only RARs, while 9CRA activates both RARs and RXRs [9]. Am80 can only bind to RARα and β, though their binding affinities are more potent than ATRA [9]. HX630 is a RXR-selective compound, which is so called retinoid synergists. Retinoid synergists are thought to be inactive alone because they cannot activate RXR-RAR heterodimers, but...