Growth and metastasis of human breast carcinomas with Matrigel in athymic mice

Abstract

Immunodeficient athymic mice with human tumor xenografts provide an important in vivo experimental model for cancer research. However, only a limited number of tumor types grow in these animals. For human breast carcinomas, the incidence of tumor-take is 6-15%. Recently, increased incidence of xenograft development in mice has been reported for various human tumors when the tumors were coinjected with Matrigel. We studied the development of human breast carcinoma xenografts in athymic mice with and without coinjection of Matrigel. Tumors developed in only 7.3% of enzyme-dispersed tumors injected subcutaneously in saline solution alone. None of these tumors metastasized to distant sites. On the other hand, 50% of enzyme-dispersed tumors coinjected with Matrigel developed xenografts; four out of five of these tumors metastasized to distant sites. Our data from the recent study suggest that, in athymic mice, Matrigel not only enhanced breast tumor growth but also facilitated tumor metastasis.

Identifying Cancer Stem Cells in Solid Tumors: Case Not Proven

“…More recent studies identifying growth factors and angiogenic factors produced by tumor cells suggest that an important function of the feeder cells may have been to provide a suitable concentration of stimulatory growth factors for the viable tumor cells to be able to survive and proliferate. More recent work demonstrating the increased efficacy of transplantation into s.c. or orthotopic sites when the cell suspension is mixed with Matrigel (a basement membrane-like substance that contains many growth factors) prior to implantation, is consistent with this idea (34,35). Another example is the widely reported observation that the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line transplants more efficiently and grows better in immune-deficient mice that have been separately implanted with pellets that provide a slow release of estrogen (see e.g., ref.…”

Adenovirus-mediated p16INK4 gene transfer significantly suppresses human breast cancer growth

“…It has been reported that Metrigel was able to significantly enhance human breast tumor growth in nude mice, although the tumor growth rate was not 100%. 29 Mice were sacrificed at 2 weeks after tumor inoculation. Tumors were removed for histological analysis.…”

Overexpression of mutant p53 and c-erbB-2 proteins and breast tumour take in mice

“…Enzyme-dispersed tumours were mixed with Matnrgel (a mixture of basement membrane components), then injected subcutaneously (s.c.) into athymic mice. Matrigel use not only increased tumour take, but also enhanced tumour growth and facilitated distant metastasis (Mehta et al, 1993).…”