Zhou Jiahua, Yu Zeqian, Zhao Susu, Hu Liang, Zheng Jie, Yang Detong, Bouvet Michael, Hoffman Robert M
Department of General Surgery, Zhong Da Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
J Surg Res. 2009 Nov;157(1):63-70. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2008.08.027. Epub 2008 Oct 9.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive human malignancies. One of the leading causes of pancreatic cancer death is metastasis. In this report, we developed in vitro, a stable high-expression red fluorescent protein (RFP) transductant of the pancreatic cancer cells with a lentiviral expression vector containing the DsRed-2 RFP gene. These fluorescent pancreatic cancer cells were used to establish an orthotopic metastatic model and an experimental angiogenesis metastatic model of pancreatic cancer in nude mice. The high-level expression of RFP enables the imaging of distant micrometastases in their target organs. RFP expression did not interfere with the biological properties of the transformed cells compared to the parental cell line. We also demonstrated that lentiviral-transduced pancreatic cancer cells maintained stable high-level RFP expression during their growth in vitro and in vivo. The fluorescence was sufficient to noninvasively image tumor growth and metastasis, even in deep tissue such as the lung. The results indicate the benefit of lentivirus transfection of cancer cells for high expression of RFP and for sensitive in vivo imaging of metastatic pancreatic cancer.
胰腺癌是最具侵袭性的人类恶性肿瘤之一。胰腺癌死亡的主要原因之一是转移。在本报告中，我们在体外利用含有DsRed-2红色荧光蛋白（RFP）基因的慢病毒表达载体构建了胰腺癌细胞的稳定高表达红色荧光蛋白转导细胞系。这些荧光胰腺癌细胞被用于建立裸鼠胰腺癌原位转移模型和实验性血管生成转移模型。RFP的高水平表达能够对其靶器官中的远处微转移灶进行成像。与亲代细胞系相比，RFP表达不干扰转化细胞的生物学特性。我们还证明，慢病毒转导的胰腺癌细胞在体外和体内生长过程中保持稳定的高水平RFP表达。这种荧光足以对肿瘤生长和转移进行无创成像，即使在肺等深部组织中也是如此。结果表明，慢病毒转染癌细胞对于RFP的高表达以及转移性胰腺癌的体内灵敏成像具有益处。
