A clinically relevant orthotopic xenograft model of ependymoma that maintains the genomic signature of the primary tumor and preserves cancer stem cells in vivo.

ABSTRACT: Limited availability of in vitro and in vivo model systems has hampered efforts to understand tumor biology and test novel therapies for ependymoma, the third most common malignant brain tumor that occurs in children. To develop clinically relevant animal models of ependymoma, we directly injected a fresh surgical specimen from a 9-year-old patient into the right cerebrum of RAG2/severe complex immune deficiency (SCID) mice. All five mice receiving the initial transplantation of the patient tumor developed intracerebral xenografts, which have since been serially subtransplanted in vivo in mouse brains for 4 generations and can be cryopreserved for long-term maintenance of tumorigenicity. The xenograft tumors shared nearly identical histopathological features with the original tumors, harbo

SUBMITTER: Yu L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2940646 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature