I'm interested to hear about other's experiences in A549 xenografting and if there are any issues that come up. Do the cells form tumors efficiently? Are there issues with mouse survival, and what mice should be used? Would the xenograft be suitable for the evaluation of lung cancer drugs/therapies?
Helpful tips would be greatly appreciated!
Yeas, A549 forms tumors efficiently in nude mice xenograft models. Survival is dependent on how long you allow the tumor to grow. Yes, for anticancer drug testing this model is well accepted.
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Subcutaneous injection of A549 cell into nude mice (I think that SCID mice are also acceptible, it is important to use immunodeficient mice because these cells are of human origin) lead to formation of solid tumors (xenografts formed in site of injection). In our experiment xenografts were well-palpable, had round or oval form, it was easy to measure it with caliper.
Usual dose for injection is 5*10^6 cells per mice (in 100µl of PBS) and the time of tumor formation is 2 - 4 weeks. The duration of our experiments was 2 - 3 weeks after cells injection, and the mice survived until the end of the experiment.
We studied histology of xenografts. A549 xenografts consist of tumor cells that are closely adjacent to each other. Usually there is some necrotic area in (solid) xenografts. I would say that A549 xenografts reminds A431 xenografts. In my opinion it is better (and more convinient) to work with A431 xenograft model (If there is no need to work with the model of lung cancer, A431 is NOT of lung origin).
Model of A549 is well accepted to test anticancer drugs. For example we used it to test antitumor effect of oncolitic virus. Here is publication where it was used in the same way.
One of its specialty is that fixator (in our case it was paraformaldehyde 4%) becomes viscous when A549 xenograft tissue is put in it.
A549 xenografts depend on the end goals of your study; when we do A549 xenografts we usually want to have a tumor form, which is why our injection dose contains the cells in matrigel (http://altogenlabs.com/xenograft-models/lung-cancer-xenograft/a549-xenograft-model/). The timing and functionality are exactly what Anastasiya described them to be - a few weeks for growth and another few weeks for the treatment regiment.
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