Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany.
Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey.
Commun Biol. 2021 May 11;4(1):556. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02063-8.
Preclinical breast tumor models are an invaluable tool to systematically study tumor progression and treatment response, yet methods to non-invasively monitor the involved molecular and mechanistic properties under physiologically relevant conditions are limited. Here we present an intravital mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography (henceforth IFT) approach that is capable of tracking fluorescently labeled tumor cells in a quantitative manner inside the mammary gland of living mice. Our mesoscopic approach is entirely non-invasive and thus permits prolonged observational periods of several months. The relatively high sensitivity and spatial resolution further enable inferring the overall number of oncogene-expressing tumor cells as well as their tumor volume over the entire cycle from early tumor growth to residual disease following the treatment phase. Our IFT approach is a promising method for studying tumor growth dynamics in a quantitative and longitudinal fashion in-vivo.
临床前乳腺肿瘤模型是系统研究肿瘤进展和治疗反应的宝贵工具，但在生理相关条件下非侵入性监测所涉及的分子和机制特性的方法有限。在这里，我们提出了一种活体介观荧光分子断层扫描（简称 IFT）方法，该方法能够以定量的方式在活体小鼠的乳腺内跟踪荧光标记的肿瘤细胞。我们的介观方法完全是非侵入性的，因此可以允许长达几个月的长时间观察期。相对较高的灵敏度和空间分辨率还能够推断出整个周期内表达致癌基因的肿瘤细胞的总数，以及在治疗阶段后从早期肿瘤生长到残留疾病的肿瘤体积。我们的 IFT 方法是一种很有前途的方法，可用于在体内以定量和纵向的方式研究肿瘤生长动力学。
