Spontaneous and Experimental Metastasis Models: Nude Mice
Immunodeficient mice are widely used for cancer research as they can provide an in vivo system in which to study the tumorigenicity and metastatic potential of human cancer cells. The athymic or “nude” mouse has been employed for a variety of experimental analyses of tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. This chapter describes two types of experimental design for studying metastasis in vivo. The spontaneous metastasis models assess the ability of cells to disseminate from a local tumor, and are commonly initiated by the injection of the cells into an organ reflecting the tissue of origin of the cancer (orthotopic injection). Models of experimental metastasis evaluate the ability of tumor cells to arrest, extravasate, and grow in various organs following intravascular injection. The appropriate design of animal models using nude mice, and established human tumor cell lines, assists in the generation of novel information about the metastatic phenotype, and provides a valuable, preclinical system for testing anti-metastatic therapies.
- E1A-Mediated Gene Therapy
- Flow Cytometric Measurement of Cell Proliferation
- Coimmunoprecipitation Assay for the Detection of Kinase-Substrate Interactions
- Nutrigenomics: Implications for Breast and Colon Cancer Prevention
- Multiplex Caspase Activity and Cytotoxicity Assays
- Screening of Mutations in the ras Family of Oncogenes by Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Ligase Chain Reaction
- PPAR/ Agonist Increases the Expression of PGE2 Receptor Subtype EP4 in Human Lung Carcinoma Cells
- Antisense Oligonucleotides as Research Tools
- PARP Cleavage and Caspase Activity to Assess Chemosensitivity
- Polymer-Based Delivery of RNA-Based Therapeutics in Ovarian Cancer