Induction of Human Glioma Tumor in Sprague-Dawley Rats with Intact Immune System.
OBJECTIVE
Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain tumor in humans. The median survival rate of patients is one year after the diagnosis. So, development of an animal model is necessary for the advances in the research treatment of GBM. The aim of this study was to investigate the capability of human glioma cells in inducing glioma tumors in rats with intact immune system.


METHODS
U87 cells were implanted in the frontal lobe of rats without suppressing the immune system. We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Hematoxylin-Eosin (H&E) and Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining to assess characteristics of tumor.


RESULTS
At the 10th and 14th days of tumor inoculation, MRI images contained the tumor areas in the brain. All tumor-bearing rats developed tumors. The rats retained the morphology and histological characteristics of human glioma. Animals mimic GBM characteristics, such as mitotic activity, invasion, neovascularization, necrosis and pseudopalisading cells. IHC staining revealed tumor growth and progression in the tumor-bearing rats.


CONCLUSIONS
This model is a standard system for studying the tumor phenotype, genotype, and for evaluating the efficacy of anti-cancer agents. It is a reliable, simple, inexpensive, and easily reproducible model, which may be a way for pre-clinical studies.
Department of Anatomy, Afzalipour School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Zahra
Z
Abdi
Hossien
H
Eskandary
Seyed Noureddin
SN
Nematollahi-Mahani
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley