title: Establishment and propagation of human retinoblastoma tumors in immune deficient mice.
abstract: Culturing retinoblastoma tumor cells in defined stem cell media gives rise to primary tumorspheres that can be grown and maintained for only a limited time. These cultured tumorspheres may exhibit markedly different cellular phenotypes when compared to the original tumors. Demonstration that cultured cells have the capability of forming new tumors is important to ensure that cultured cells model the biology of the original tumor. Here we present a protocol for propagating human retinoblastoma tumors in vivo using Rag2(-/-) immune deficient mice. Cultured human retinoblastoma tumorspheres of low passage or cells obtained from freshly harvested human retinoblastoma tumors injected directly into the vitreous cavity of murine eyes form tumors within 2-4 weeks. These tumors can be harvested and either further passaged into murine eyes in vivo or grown as tumorspheres in vitro. Propagation has been successfully carried out for at least three passages thus establishing a continuing source of human retinoblastoma tissue for further experimentation.
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Program in Translational Biology & Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Wesley S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Bond
authors.forename: Lalita
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wadhwa
authors.forename: Laszlo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perlaky
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Penland
authors.forename: Mary Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Hurwitz
authors.forename: Richard L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Hurwitz
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chèvez-Barrios
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000172:deficiency / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation / Q000276:immunology / Q000379:methods*; D019572:Retinal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D012175:Retinoblastoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C499308:Rag2 protein, mouse