Monitoring Breast Cancer Growth and Metastatic Colony Formation in Mice using Bioluminescence

Summary

Here, we describe a noninvasive monitoring method involving luciferase and green fluorescent protein expression in various breast cancer cell lines. This protocol provides a technique to monitor tumor formation and metastatic colonization in real time in mice.

Abstract

Breast cancer is a frequent heterogeneous malignancy and the second leading cause of mortality in women, mainly due to distant organ metastasis. Several animal models have been generated, including the widely used orthotopic mouse models, where cancer cells are injected into the mammary fat pad. However, these models cannot help monitor tumor growth kinetics and metastatic colonization. Cutting-edge tools to monitor cancer cells in real time in mice will significantly advance the understanding of tumor biology.

Here, breast cancer cell lines stably expressing luciferase and green fluorescent protein (GFP) were established. Specifically, this technique contains two sequential steps initiated by measuring the luciferase activity in vitro and followed by the implantation of the cancer cells into mammary fat pads of nonobese diabetic-severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD-SCID) mice. After the injection, both the tumor growth and metastatic colonization are monitored in real time by the noninvasive bioluminescence imaging system. Then, the quantification of GFP-expressing metastases in the lungs will be examined by fluorescence microscopy to validate the observed bioluminescence results. This sophisticated system combining luciferase and fluorescence-based detection tools evaluates cancer metastasis in vivo, which has great potential for use in breast cancer therapeutics and disease management.

Introduction

Breast cancers are frequent types of cancer worldwide, with approximately 250,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the United States¹. Despite its high incidence, a new set of anticancer drugs has significantly improved breast cancer patient outcomes². However, these treatments are still inadequate, as many patients experience disease relapse and metastatic spread to vital organs², which is the primary cause of patient morbidity and mortality. Therefore, one of the main challenges in breast cancer research is identifying the molecular mechanisms regulating the formation of distal metastases to dev....

Protocol

All mouse experiments were carried out under the Hebrew University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee-approved protocol MD-21-16429-5. In addition, the Hebrew University is certified by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC).

1. Cell line maintenance

NOTE: The human breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-468, and MDA-MB-231) were used in this protocol.

1. Culture all the breast cancer cell lines in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM), supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) and 1% penicillin-streptomycin at 37 °C in a humidi....

Results

We generated breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and MDA-MB-468) expressing GFP and luciferase vectors. Specifically, this was achieved by a sequential infection. First, the breast cancer cell lines were infected with a lentivirus vector expressing fluorescent GFP. The GFP-positive cells (GFP⁺) were sorted 2 days post-infection (Figure 1A,B) and infected with the pLX304 Luciferase-V5 vector. Then, blasticidin was used to select for luciferase to generate .......

Discussion

Animal-based experiments are obligatory for cancer research^7,8,9, and indeed many protocols have been developed^{3,6,10,11,12,13,14}. However, most of these studies determined the biological effect onl.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
1.7 mL eppendorf tubes	Lifegene	LMCT1.7B-500
10 µL tips	Lifegene	LRT10
1000 µL tips	Lifegene	LRT1000
15 mL tubes	Lifegene	LTB15-500
200 µL tips	Lifegene	LRT200
6 well cell culture plate	COSTAR	3516
96 well Plates BLACK flat bottom	Bar Naor	BN30496
Automated Cell Counters	Thermofisher	A50298
BD FACSAria III sorter	BD
BD Microlance 3 Needles 27 G (3/4'')	BD	302200
BD Plastipak Syringes 1 mL x 120	BD	303172
Corning 100 mm x 20 mm Style Dish	CORNING	430167
Corning 150 mm x 20 mm Style Dish	CORNING	430599
Countess cell counting chamber slides	Thermofisher	C10228
Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM), high glucose, no glutamine	Biological Industries	01-055-1A
Eclipse 80i microscope	Nikon
eppendorf Centrifuge 5810 R	Sigma Aldrich	EP5820740000
Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)	Biological Industries	04-127-1A
FUW GFP			Gifted from Dr. Yossi Buganim's lab (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
HEK293T			Gifted from Dr. Lior Nissim's lab (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Isoflurane, USP Terrell	Piramal	NDC 66794-01-25
IVIS Spectrum In Vivo Imaging System	Perkin Elmer	124262
L-Glutamine Solution	Biological industries	03-020-1A
Living Image Software	PerkinElmer		bioluminescence measurement
MCF-7	ATCC	ATCC HTB-22
MDA-MB-231	ATCC	ATCC HTB-26
MDA-MB-468	ATCC	ATCC HTB-132
Pasteur pipettes	NORMAX	2430-475
PBS	Hylabs	BP655/500D
pCMV-dR8.2-dvpr	Addgene	#8455	Provided by David M. Sabatini’s lab (Whitehead institute, Boston, USA)
pCMV-VSV-G	Addgene	#8454	Provided by David M. Sabatini’s lab (Whitehead institute, Boston, USA)
Penicillin-Streptomycin Solution	Biological Industries	03-031-1B
Petri dish 90 mm (90x15)	MINI PLAST	820-090-01-017
Pipettes 10ml	Lifegene	LG-GSP010010S
Pipettes 25ml	Lifegene	LG-GSP010050S
Pipettes 5ml	Lifegene	LG-GSP010005S
pLX304 Luciferase-V5 blast plasmid	Addgene	#98580
Polybrene	Sigma Aldrich	#107689
Prism 9	GraphPad
Reagent Reservoirs	Bar Naor	BN20621STR200TC
SMZ18 Stereo microscopes	Nikon
Sodium Chloride	Bio-Lab	190359400
Syringe filters	Lifegene	LG-FPV403030S
Trypan Blue 0.5% solution	Biological industries	03-102-1B
Trypsin EDTA Solution B (0.25%), EDTA (0.05%)	Biological Industries	03-052-1a
Vacuum driven Filters	SOFRA LIFE SCIENCE	SPE-22-500
Virusolve		disinfectant
VivoGlo Luciferin, In Vivo Grade	Promega	P1043
X-tremeGENE HP DNA Transfection Reagent	Sigma Aldrich	#6366236001