Zhu Hong, Kauffman Megan E, Li Jason Z, Sarkar Soumyadeep, Trush Michael A, Jia Zhenquan, Li Y Robert
School of Osteopathic Medicine, Campbell University, Buies Creek, NC 27506, USA.
College of Arts and Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
React Oxyg Species (Apex). 2016;1(2):157-164. doi: 10.20455/ros.2016.819.
Animal models are essential for developing effective drugs for treating human cancer. Examination of the formation of lung surface foci of B16-F10 melanoma cells is a widely used animal model for studying cancer metastasis and drug intervention. This model, however, suffers from several drawbacks, including its non-quantitative nature and inability to yield information on cancer cell load inside the target organ. Here we report the development of a highly sensitive, bioluminescence-based method for quantifying melanoma cell load in mouse lungs following intravenous injection of luciferase-expressing B16-F10 melanoma cells. This method could readily detect as few as 1-10 cells in the samples and enable quantification of cancer cell load before the formation of surface foci in mouse lungs following metastasis of intravenously inoculated B16-F10 melanoma cells. This innovative bioluminometry-based method has important implications for studying anticancer drugs, including naturally occurring redox-active quinones that generate reactive oxygen species to kill cancer cells.
动物模型对于开发治疗人类癌症的有效药物至关重要。检测B16-F10黑色素瘤细胞肺表面病灶的形成是一种广泛用于研究癌症转移和药物干预的动物模型。然而，该模型存在几个缺点，包括其非定量性质以及无法提供靶器官内癌细胞负荷的信息。在此，我们报告了一种基于生物发光的高灵敏度方法的开发，用于在静脉注射表达荧光素酶的B16-F10黑色素瘤细胞后定量小鼠肺中的黑色素瘤细胞负荷。该方法能够轻易检测到样品中低至1-10个细胞，并能够在静脉接种的B16-F10黑色素瘤细胞转移后小鼠肺中表面病灶形成之前对癌细胞负荷进行定量。这种基于生物发光测定法的创新方法对于研究抗癌药物具有重要意义，包括天然存在的氧化还原活性醌，它们产生活性氧来杀死癌细胞。
