title: Establishment of an orthotopic tumour model for hepatocellular carcinoma and non-invasive in vivo tumour imaging by high resolution ultrasound in mice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In this study we established an orthotopic tumour model for hepatocellular carcinoma and evaluated a non-invasive high resolution ultrasound technique for diagnosis and follow-up of intrahepatic HCC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Orthotopic liver tumours were induced by intrahepatic tumour cell injection of 10(5) Hepa129 hepatoma cells. Tumour establishment and growth were assessed by explorative laparotomy, ultrasound technique and hepatectomy one and two weeks after tumour cell implantation. Tumour establishment was confirmed histologically in liver sections.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results show that the Hepa129 hepatoma cell line is suitable for orthotopic tumour establishment and that tumours can be diagnosed correctly by ultrasound imaging in all cases as confirmed by explorative laparotomy, hepatectomy and cross-sections. Tumour diameters obtained by explorative laparotomy correlated significantly with diameters assessed by ultrasound (r=0.7; P<0.0001). Tumour burden was slightly overestimated (1.2-fold) by ultrasound one week after tumour induction and relative tumour extensions increased 1.7-fold and 1.8-fold within one week as determined by subsequent explorative laparotomy or ultrasound imaging, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data demonstrate in a systematic study that ultrasound imaging can be used as a reliable tool to detect and to follow up orthotopic liver tumours in this tumour model in mice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany. volker.schmitz@ukb.uni-bonn.de
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tirado-Ledo
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tiemann
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Raskopf
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Heinicke
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ziske
authors.forename: Maria A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: González-Carmona
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rabe
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wernert
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prieto
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Tilman
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sauerbruch
authors.forename: Wolfgang H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Caselmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008114:Liver Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D013997:Time Factors; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods