title: An animal explant model for the study of human cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: We established a human tissue explant model to facilitate study of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. We accomplished this by implanting debulked SCC, from surgical discard, into nude rats. Human SCC remained viable and continued to proliferate for at least 4 weeks and showed evidence of neovascularization. At 4 weeks, SCC implants showed a trend toward increased PCNA positive cells compared to fresh SCC cells/mm(2) tissue) supporting continued proliferation throughout engraftment. Von Willebrand's Factor (VWF) positive cells were found within implants and likely represented rat vessel neovascularization. Human Langerhans' (Langerin+) cells, but no T cells (CD3+, CD8+, FoxP3+), macrophages (CD163), or NK cells (NKp46), were present in SCC implants at 4 weeks. These findings support the possibility that LCs fail to migrate from cutaneous SCC and thus contribute to lack of effective antitumor response. Our findings also provide a novel model system for further study of primary cutaneous SCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Belkin
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jonathan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Rosoff
authors.forename: Sagit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goldenberg
authors.forename: Dix P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Poppas
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Krueger
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herschman
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mitsui
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Felsen
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Carucci
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D011923:Rats, Nude; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*