title: A Brain Tumor/Organotypic Slice Co-culture System for Studying Tumor Microenvironment and Targeted Drug Therapies.
abstract: Brain tumors are a major cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality. Developing new therapeutics for these cancers is difficult, as many of these tumors are not easily grown in standard culture conditions. Neurosphere cultures under serum-free conditions and orthotopic xenografts have expanded the range of tumors that can be maintained. However, many types of brain tumors remain difficult to propagate or study. This is particularly true for pediatric brain tumors such as pilocytic astrocytomas and medulloblastomas. This protocol describes a system that allows primary human brain tumors to be grown in culture. This quantitative assay can be used to investigate the effect of microenvironment on tumor growth, and to test new drug therapies. This protocol describes a system where fluorescently labeled brain tumor cells are grown on an organotypic brain slice from a juvenile mouse. The response of tumor cells to drug treatments can be studied in this assay, by analyzing changes in the number of cells on the slice over time. In addition, this system can address the nature of the microenvironment that normally fosters growth of brain tumors. This brain tumor organotypic slice co-culture assay provides a propitious system for testing new drugs on human tumor cells within a brain microenvironment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
authors.forename: Emily J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Chadwick
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital.
authors.forename: Mariella G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Filbin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics & Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mazzola
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
authors.forename: Oded
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Behar
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
authors.forename: Maria F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Pazyra-Murphy
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital.
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goumnerova
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Oncologic Pathology, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
authors.forename: Keith L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Ligon
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
authors.forename: Charles D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Stiles
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; rosalind_segal@dfci.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Rosalind A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Segal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001254:Astrocytoma / Q000473:pathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D018920:Coculture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D051379:Mice; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D008863:Microspheres; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes