Dual Bioluminescence Imaging of Tumor Progression and Angiogenesis

Summary

This protocol describes the establishment of a tumor-bearing mouse model to monitor tumor progression and angiogenesis in real-time by dual bioluminescence imaging.

Abstract

Angiogenesis, as a crucial process of tumor progression, has become a research hotspot and target of anti-tumor therapy. However, there is no reliable model for tracing tumor progression and angiogenesis simultaneously in a visual and sensitive manner. Bioluminescence imaging displays its unique superiority in living imaging due to its advantages of high sensitivity, strong specificity, and accurate measurement. Presented here is a protocol to establish a tumor-bearing mouse model by injecting a Renilla luciferase-labeled murine breast cancer cell line 4T1 into the transgenic mouse with angiogenesis-induced Firefly luciferase expression. This mouse model provides a valuable tool to simultaneously monitor tumor progression and angiogenesis in real-time by dual bioluminescence imaging in a single mouse. This model may be widely applied in anti-tumor drug screening and oncology research.

Introduction

Angiogenesis is an essential process in the progression of cancer from small, localized neoplasms to larger, potentially metastatic tumors^1,2. The correlation between tumor growth and angiogenesis becomes one of the points of emphasis in the field of oncology research. However, traditional methods of measuring morphologic changes fail to monitor tumor progression and angiogenesis simultaneously in living animals using a visualized approach.

Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) of tumor cells is a particularly appropriate experimental method to monitor tumor growth because of its non-invasi....

Protocol

Experiments must comply with national and institutional regulations concerning the use of animals for research purposes. Permissions to carry out experiments must be obtained. The treatment of animals and experimental procedures of the study adhere to the Nankai University Animal Care and Use Committee Guidelines that conform to the Guidelines for Animal Care approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

1. LV-Rluc-RFP (RR) and LV-Rluc-RFP-HSV-ttk (RRT) lentiviral packaging and production

NOTE: The pLV-RR carries the gene sequences of Renilla luciferase (Rluc) and red fluorescent protein (RFP) under the prom....

Results

In this experiment, a breast cancer mouse model was established using 4T1 cells to investigate the relationship between tumor growth and tumor angiogenesis (Figure 1). Firstly, two lentivirus were packaged, which carried gene sequences expressing Rluc/RFP (LV-RR) and Rluc/RFP/HSV-ttk (LV-RRT), respectively, as previously reported⁷. Then, two different 4T1 cell lines, named 4T1-RR and 4T1-RRT, were created by transducing LV-RR and LV-RR.......

Discussion

In this protocol, a non-invasive dual BLI approach is described for monitoring tumor development and angiogenesis. The BLI reporter system is first developed, containing the HSV-ttk/GCV suicide gene for tracking tumor progression and regression in vivo by Rluc imaging. Meanwhile, tumor angiogenesis is assessed using Vegfr2-Fluc-KI mice via Fluc imaging. This tumor-bearing mouse model is able to provide a practical platform for continuous and non-invasive tracking tumor development and tumor angiogenesis by dual BLI in a .......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.25% Trypsin-0.53 mM EDTA	Gibco	25200072
1.5 mL Tubes	Axygen Scientific	MCT-105-C-S
15 mL Tubes	Corning Glass Works	601052-50
293T	ATCC	CRL-3216
4T1	ATCC	CRL-2539
60 mm Dish	Corning Glass Works	430166
6-well Plate	Corning Glass Works	3516
Biosafety Cabinet	Shanghai Lishen Scientific	Hfsafe-900LC
Blasticidine S Hydrochloride (BSD)	Sigma-Aldrich	15205
Cell Counting Kit-8	MedChem Express	HY-K0301
CO2 Tegulated Incubator	Thermo Fisher Scientific	4111
Coelenterazine (CTZ)	NanoLight Technology	479474
D-luciferin Potassium Salt	Caliper Life Sciences	119222
DMEM Medium	Gibco	C11995500BT
Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)	BIOIND	04-001-1A
Fluorescence Microscope	Nikon	Ti-E/U/S
Ganciclovir (GCV)	Sigma-Aldrich	Y0001129
Graphics Software	GraphPad Software	Graphpad Prism 6
Insulin Syringe Needles	Becton Dickinson	328421
Isoflurane	Baxter	691477H
Lentiviral Packaging System	Biosettia	cDNA-pLV03
Liposome	Invitrogen	11668019
Living Imaging Software	Caliper Life Sciences	Living Imaging Software 4.2
Living Imaging System	Caliper Life Sciences	IVIS Lumina II
MEM Medium	Invitrogen	31985-070
Penicillin-Streptomycin	Invitrogen	15140122
Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS)	Corning Glass Works	R21031399
Polybrene	Sigma-Aldrich	H9268-1G
RPMI1640 Medium	Gibco	C11875500BT
SORVALL ST 16R Centrifuge	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Thermo Sorvall ST 16 ST16R
Ultra-low Temperature Refrigerator	Haier	DW-86L338
XGI-8 Gas Anesthesia System	XENOGEN Corporation	7293