title: Establishment of Fischer 344 rat model of ovarian cancer with lymphatic metastasis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish a model of ovarian cancer with highly lymphatic metastasis in immunocompetent rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-two female Fischer 344 rats were divided randomly and equally into two groups: footpad group and intraperitoneal (i.p.) group. At 8 weeks after injection with NuTu-19 ovarian cancer cells, lymphatic metastasis were analyzed by pathohistology; body weight was monitored per week, Survival curves were determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Footpad injection could efficiently generate the lymphatic metastasis; specifically, the incidences of metastasis in the ipsilateral popliteal, inguinal and para-iliac lymph nodes were 100% (8/8), 75% (6/8), and 37.5% (3/8), respectively. The mean volume and weight of the ipsilateral popliteal lymph nodes were 0.405 ± 0.096 cm(3) and 0.418 ± 0.118 g in footpad group. However, no lymphatic metastasis lesions were found in i.p. group. Moreover, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the average survival time of the footpad group was significantly longer than that of the i.p. group (18.429 ± 1.112 vs. 10.286 ± 0.505 weeks).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our experiments suggest that footpad injection is a very efficient method to generate ovarian cancer with lymphatic metastasis in an immune-competent animal, and we believe that this model will be very helpful for shedding light on the mechanism of lymphogenous metastasis and developing novel therapeutic targets for ovarian cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Shanghai Medical School, Fudan University, No.419 Fangxie Road, Shanghai, 200011, China.
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Yingtao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Congjian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344