A human melanoma cell line, M14 , adapted to grow in serum free synthetic media was examined for its expression and secretion of several serologically defined melanoma associated antigens (MAA) previously described in this laboratory. Melanoma associated antigen expression and secretion was identical to that of M14 cells grown in parallel in serum supplemented medium. Spent synthetic media was found to be an enriched serum free source for the initial isolation of 100 kilodalton secreted glycoprotein MAA. M14 melanoma cells grown in synthetic media were also shown to be adaptable to the double agar clonogenic assay facilitating the examination of clonal heterogeneity in functional studies of MAA in melanoma tumor biology. Recent investigations from this laboratory have focused on characterizing human melanoma associated antigens (MAA) found either as secreted or cell surface associated glycoproteins in human melanoma cell lines. In these studies, monoclonal and polyclonal antiserums to melanoma cell components have been developed to specifically identify these MAAs immunochemically and provide a means to study the structural biochemistry of these determinants. At this time we have identified two antigens on which our research efforts are targeted: 1) a 100,000 dalton secreted glycoprotein (100K) common to melanoma, sarcoma and neuroblastoma tumor cell lines, and 2) a 250,000 dalton-high molecular weight component glycoprotein-proteoglycan complex which is thus far restricted to melanoma cells. The ultimate goal of our efforts is two-fold. Initially, we hope to develop schemes to isolate these melanoma associated antigens in sufficient quantities to obtain detailed structural information on these molecules, and secondly, we wish to implicate these glycoproteins in functional aspects of the biology of metastatic human melanoma in vitro.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)