Establishment of orthotopic xenograft model of human brain glioma with high invasiveness and overexpression of EGFR

Objective To establish orthotopic xenograft model of human brain glioma in nude mice with characteristics of high invasiveness and overexpression of EGFR. Method Human glioblastoma muhiforme cell line with overexpression of EGFR was cultured in vitro, then tumor cells were injected stereotaxically into the right caudate nucleus of nude mice. The newly formed solid tumor were sharply dissected and 2.0mm3 tumor tissue were implanted in the right caudate nucleus of nude mice. Results The xenografts have been passed continuously in 130 mice for 13 generations in candate nucleus of nude mice, and the survival time were (19±1.33) days. Histological assay suggests the grafts were high invasive with overexpression of EGFR, which were in accordance with the characteristics of the original human glioblastoma multiforme. The tumor proliferation curve suggests that tumor latent period was less than 3 days, rapid proliferation phase were longer than 15 days, and the advanced stage to dead point was less than 3 days. Conclusions Compared with tumor cells suspension directly innoculated into the caudate nucleus of nude mice, transplantion of solid tumor tissue took on the advantages of not only injection of plenty of tumor cells, but also tumor matrix that were necessary for the rapid tumor growth, which was helpful for maintaining the parent tumor with high invasiveness and overexpression of EGFR. Key words: Glioma;  Mice, nude;  Orthotopic xenograft;  Invasive growth;  Recepter, epidermal growth factor