Kang Yibin
Department of Molecular Biology, Lewis Thomas Laboratory 255, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2016;1344:219-32. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-2966-5_13.
Metastatic spread of cancer cells from the primary tumors to distant vital organs, such as lung, liver, brain, and bone, is responsible for the majority of cancer-related deaths. Development of metastatic lesions is critically dependent on the interaction of tumor cells with the stromal microenvironment. As a multifunctional paracrine signaling factor that is abundantly produced by both tumor and stromal cells, TGFβ has been well established as an important mediator of tumor-stromal interaction during cancer metastasis. Imaging the in vivo dynamic of TGFβ signaling activity during cancer metastasis is critical for understanding the pathogenesis of the disease, and for the development of effective anti-metastasis treatments. In this chapter, I describe several xenograft methods to introduce human breast cancer cells into nude mice in order to generate spontaneous and experimental metastases, as well as the luciferase-based bioluminescence imaging method for quantitative imaging analysis of TGFβ signaling in tumor cells during metastasis.
癌细胞从原发性肿瘤转移至远处重要器官，如肺、肝、脑和骨，是导致大多数癌症相关死亡的原因。转移性病变的发展严重依赖于肿瘤细胞与基质微环境的相互作用。作为一种由肿瘤细胞和基质细胞大量产生的多功能旁分泌信号因子，转化生长因子β（TGFβ）已被充分确认为癌症转移过程中肿瘤-基质相互作用的重要介质。对癌症转移过程中TGFβ信号活性的体内动态进行成像，对于理解该疾病的发病机制以及开发有效的抗转移治疗方法至关重要。在本章中，我将描述几种异种移植方法，即将人乳腺癌细胞引入裸鼠体内以产生自发性和实验性转移，以及基于荧光素酶的生物发光成像方法，用于在转移过程中对肿瘤细胞中的TGFβ信号进行定量成像分析。
