title: If you don't look, you won't see: intravital multiphoton imaging of primary and metastatic breast cancer.
abstract: A fundamental hallmark of cancer is progression to metastasis and the growth of breast cancer metastases in lung, bone, liver and/or brain causes fatal complications. Unfortunately, the cellular and biochemical mechanisms of the metastatic process remain ill-defined. Recent application of intravital multiphoton microscopy (MP-IVM) to image fluorescently labeled cells in mouse models of cancer has allowed dynamic observation of this multi-step process at the cellular and subcellular levels. In this article, we discuss the use of MP-IVM in studies of breast cancer metastasis, as well as surgical techniques for exposing tumors prior to imaging. We also describe a versatile multiphoton microscope for imaging tumor-stroma interactions.
authors.affiliation: Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), Maulbeerstrasse 66, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bonapace
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wyckoff
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oertner
authors.forename: Jacco
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Rheenen
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Junt
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bentires-Alj
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019046:Bone Marrow Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton / Q000295:instrumentation; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation / Q000473:pathology; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins