Hello Joe Smith
There could be several factors that could cause variations in tumor growth patterns such as route of inoculation and mouse strain used to introduce tumors. Intraperitoneal (i.p.), subcutaneous (s.c.), intravenous (i.v.) and hydrodynamic (h.d.) injections are all viable routes for inoculation, and each produces a distinct pattern of tumor growth.
Moreover, the type of cell line used (depending on the aggressive nature of the cell line) and the cell density used to inoculate also plays a major role. Lesser the cell density used to inoculate, lower will be the rate of tumor formation in these mice because of their immune system.
Generally, tumor formation takes place within 10-14 days after inoculation in Balb/c mice. But you will need to perform a cell titration for LNCap and PC3 cells.
Best.
According to ATCC, those cell lines are of human origin. BALB/c mice are immunocompetent, and will mount an anti-human response to the tumor cells. That could slow or even prevent tumor cell engraftment. This is why nude mice are used, because nude mice lack a thymus and are deficient in T cells, which permits the xenograft to grow.
Nude mice still have NK cells, which can also mediate tumor rejection. Newer models for xenografting are either scid:beige or NSG mice. These strains have impaired NK function as well as the absence of T cells and permit better engraftment of non-mouse cells.
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