Hi,
We are trying to establish subcutaneous tumor in NSG mice using prostate cancer cell line PC3 (engineered with firefly luc). We use IVIS to monitor tumor growth and noticed that the tumor size (Fluc intensity) was largest on Day3, decreased half on Day7, and slowly increased in the following 2-3 weeks, but still not reaching or surpassing the reading on Day3. We worked with subcutaneous tumor model in NSG mice before using other cell lines (eg, lymphoma) and we have always observed very fast and exponential tumor growth.
So I would like to ask;
1. Is what we observed with PC3 cells normal?
2. Would other prostate cancer cell lines (Lncap, Du154) form better subcutaneous tumors in NSG mice?
3. Are there other ways to improve PC3 tumor growth in vivo? (We noticed that the PC3 tumors grow better with matrigel, but we would like to avoid matrigel usage if possible. Also there is this paper where they seemed to grow PC3 tumors just fine without matrigel:Article Combinatorial antigen recognition with balanced signaling pr...
Thank you!
This is not unusual For some cell lines. Cell growth vs death determine the size of the tumor. Tumors also mutate in Vito.
Try injecting different numberers of viable cells and looking at the phenotype of the tumor at different time points ... as compared to your starting cells.
I had this issue working with orthotopic breast cancer models. Some cells lines do a poor job establishing vasculature, so they undergo rapid initial growth (diffusion sufficient) and then the tumor core starts to die as diffusion is no longer able to keep the tumor adequate oxygenated.
Ellen's solution is your best bet, try lowering the tumor challenge dosage to allow for slower growth. I have attached some results from when I did this and while it didn't solve the issue it did lessen the extent that it occurred. Also, be sure that you are waiting long enough after luciferin injection for it to be systemically saturating.
Ellen S Vitetta Thank you very much for the suggestions!
Brett P Gross Hi Brett, thanks a lot for sharing the data! It is very interesting to know that starting with a smaller number would actually result in better tumor growth and larger tumors in the end.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Phytochemistry
- Extracts