Adenocarcinoma Engraftment: A Method to Implant Cancer Cells into the Murine Lungs

- First, inject bleomycin, a nonribosomal hybrid drug, intratracheally in mice a few days before cancer cell engraftment to induce fibrosis in the lungs. Next, grow lung cancer cell lines in a tissue culture medium. Prepare cancer cell suspension by diluting cells in PBS. Inject ketamine-xylazine solution intraperitoneally to anesthetize the preconditioned mouse.

Now, place the mouse on an intubation platform by hanging its front teeth with its back against the platform. Open the mouth and gently pull the tongue out. Position a catheter into the trachea until the top reaches front teeth and dispense the desired amount of cancer cell suspension in the trachea to engraft bioluminescent cancer cells in the lungs.

Wait until the mouse inhales the entire volume. Remove the catheter gently and place the mouse on a recovery pad. After a few days, inject luciferin retro-orbitally in alternate eyes and place the mouse on an imager.

Cancer cells produce luciferase that converts luciferin into oxyluciferin in presence of oxygen and emit light. Acquire images to monitor tumor burden in the lungs by calculating luminoscore. In the following protocol, we will perform engraftment of lung adenocar