Work

Live Imaging of Drug Responses in the Tumor Microenvironment in Mouse Models of Breast Cancer

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: The tumor microenvironment plays a pivotal role in tumor initiation, progression, metastasis, and the response to anti-cancer therapies. Three-dimensional co-culture systems are frequently used to explicate tumor-stroma interactions, including their role in drug responses. However, many of the interactions that occur in vivo in the intact microenvironment cannot be completely replicated in these in vitro settings. Thus, direct visualization of these processes in real-time has become an important tool in understanding tumor responses to therapies and identifying the interactions between cancer cells and the stroma that can influence these responses. Here we provide a method for using spinning disk confocal microscopy of live, anesthetized mice to directly observe drug distribution, cancer cell responses and changes in tumor-stroma interactions following administration of systemic therapy in breast cancer models. We describe procedures for labeling different tumor components, treatment of animals for observing therapeutic responses, and the surgical procedure for exposing tumor tissues for imaging up to 40 hours. The results obtained from this protocol are time-lapse movies, in which such processes as drug infiltration, cancer cell death and stromal cell migration can be evaluated using image analysis software.

Source: Journal of Visualized Experiments

DOI: 10.3791/50088

Authors: Elizabeth S. Nakasone, Hanne A. Askautrud, Mikala Egeblad

Institutions: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Oslo University Hospital, University of Oslo

Language: English

Topic: Cancer Cells and Metastasis

Subfield: Oncology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: Norges Forskningsråd, Directorate for Biological Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases