A medaka model of cancer allowing direct observation of transplanted tumor cells in vivo at a cellular-level resolution.
The recent success with small fish as an animal model of cancer with the aid of fluorescence technique has attracted cancer modelers' attention because it would be possible to directly visualize tumor cells in vivo in real time. Here, we report a medaka model capable of allowing the observation of various cell behaviors of transplanted tumor cells, such as cell proliferation and metastasis, which were visualized easily in vivo. We established medaka melanoma (MM) cells stably expressing GFP and transplanted them into nonirradiated and irradiated medaka. The tumor cells were grown at the injection sites in medaka, and the spatiotemporal changes were visualized under a fluorescence stereoscopic microscope at a cellular-level resolution, and even at a single-cell level. Tumor dormancy and metastasis were also observed. Interestingly, in irradiated medaka, accelerated tumor growth and metastasis of the transplanted tumor cells were directly visualized. Our medaka model provides an opportunity to visualize in vivo tumor cells "as seen in a culture dish" and would be useful for in vivo tumor cell biology.
Hasegawa
Sumitaka
S
Diagnostic Imaging Group, Molecular Imaging Center and Department of Advanced Technologies for Radiation Protection Research, Research Center for Radiation Protection, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8555, Japan. shase@nirs.go.jp
Maruyama
Kouichi
K
Takenaka
Hikaru
H
Furukawa
Takako
T
Saga
Tsuneo
T
D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D018328:Melanoma, Amelanotic / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D009990:Oryzias; D014965:X-Rays
D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins