title: Development, differentiation, and vascular components of subcutaneous and intrahepatic Hepa129 tumors in a mouse model of hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: Tumor models in mice offer opportunities for understanding tumor formation and development of therapeutic treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma. In this study, subcutaneous or intra-hepatic Hepa129 tumors were established in C3H mice. Tumor growth was determined by daily measurements of subcutaneous tumors and post-mortem studies of subcutaneous and intrahepatic tumors. Administration of Edu was used to determine cell generation dates of tumor cells. Immunohistochemistry with antibodies directed at CD31 or CD34, and intravenous injection of labeled tomato lectin revealed tumor vasculature. Tissue sections also were processed for immunohistochemistry using a panel of antibodies to proteoglycans. Comparison of Edu labeled cells with immunoreactivity allowed determination of development and differentiation of tumor cells after cell generation. Subcutaneous and intrahepatic tumors displayed similar growth over 3 weeks. Immunohistochemistry showed strong labeling for glypican-3, 9BA12, and chondroitin sulfate of tumors in both loci, while normal liver was negative. Tumor regions containing Edu labeled cells did not show significant immunohistochemical labeling for the tumor markers until 2-3 days after Edu treatment; overlap of Edu labeled cells and immunohistochemically labeled tumor regions appeared to reach a maximum at 5 days after Edu treatment. Ectopic subcutaneous tumors displayed vascular ingrowth as the tumor cells expressed immunocytochemical markers; subcutaneous tumors displayed significantly more vascular elements than did intrahepatic tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and The Chao Family Cancer Center School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA rtrobert@uci.edu.
authors.forename: Richard T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Paula M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Gutierrez
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Janie L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Baratta
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kristoffer
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thordarson
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Braslow
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Sherry M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Haynes
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics and The Chao Family Cancer Center School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Longmuir
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor