I am planning to create xenografts of solid tumor cells (sarcoma) in NOD/SCID mice. Our lab has previously established such tumors in these mice but with a certain cell type we have not been able to establish sarcoma cell line based xenografts in NOD/SCID mice. I am now planning to use NOD/SCID gamma (NSG) mice for these xenografts. My question is, do NSG mice better support xenografts?
I would appreciate your help.
Hello Ikram Ullah,
Most of the solid cancer cells probably would not require the severe immunodeficiency of NSG mice. However, certain cell lines that do not grow well in other strains may grow better in NSG mice. You may try.
For NSG mice, there are certain cancer models that are established more efficiently. For instance, hematopoietic cancer engrafts significantly better in NSG which includes the leukemia cell lines.
Another example is the ER+ breast cancer xenografts. The ER+ breast cancer requires estradiol supplementation to retain ER positivity in a xenograft setting. NSG mice are more resistant to the toxic side effects of estradiol compared to the NOD/SCID mice. So, it helps in the long-term study of ER+ breast cancer xenografts.
Best.
Malcolm Nobre Thanks for the detailed answer. That was helpful. We won’t be working with Breast cancer cells, however, perhaps our sarcoma line may engraft better in NSG mice compared with NOD/SCID, if such is the case with some solid Tumor lines.
Tumor xenograft models play a crucial role in cancer research, allowing researchers to study tumor biology, evaluate therapeutic interventions, and investigate tumor-host interactions. NOD/SCID (Non-Obese Diabetic/Severe Combined Immunodeficiency) and NSG (NOD-scid IL2Rγnull) mice are commonly used immunodeficient mouse strains for establishing tumor xenografts due to their severely compromised immune systems, which allows for better engraftment of human tumor cells. Here's a comparison of tumor xenografts in NOD/SCID and NSG mice:
Overall, both NOD/SCID and NSG mice are valuable tools for tumor xenograft studies, but NSG mice offer advantages in terms of higher engraftment efficiency and a more severely compromised immune system, which may better recapitulate the human tumor microenvironment in certain contexts. The choice between these models depends on specific research objectives and experimental requirements.
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