Abstract
Mice are used as model organisms to understand the pathological basis of a variety of human diseases, including breast cancer. Both immunocompetent and immunocompromised mouse models are used depending on the scope of the study. Immunocompetent models allow the study of the impact of the immune system in murine models of mammary cancer, while immunodeficient mice serve as ideal host organisms to understand the behavior of human breast cancers within a biological system. Xenografting of human breast cancer cells into immunocompromised mouse models continues to be the most used fundamental animal model in preclinical breast cancer research. These in vivo models allow critical understanding of tumor biology and assessment of novel treatments, a necessary prelude to testing new drugs in the clinic. In this chapter, we provide detailed methodology for the use of non-obese diabetic (NOD) severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice in several breast cancer xenografting procedures, including established cell lines and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs).
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Acknowledgments
PM is a senior scientist of the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute (BHCRI). WF is funded by a project grant to PM from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR, PJT 162313). KMC is funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from the CIHR. Figures were created with BioRender.com.
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Fernando, W., Coyle, K.M., Marcato, P. (2022). Breast Cancer Xenograft Murine Models. In: Christian, S.L. (eds) Cancer Cell Biology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2508. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2376-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2376-3_4
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