As some of the molecules described above were flagged as probe sets that may exhibit cross-species hybridisation, as proof of our principle of the species-specific (and therefore A375 melanoma-specific and stroma-specific) microarray analysis, we tested whether the stromal cell-specific induction by DMXAA of three chemokines, ccl3 (MIP-1α), ccl4 (MIP-1β) and ccl7 (MCP-3), could be confirmed using species-specific qRT–PCR. This evidence concerns the gene CCL7 and melanoma.