In Situ Transplantation Brain Tumor Models
The most common brain tumors (e.g., gliomas), generally have a high mortality rate. Despite continuous improvements in surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy techniques, their recurrence rate is high and their prognosis remains poor. The reason for this is the failure to elucidate the process of brain tumor development, especially the difficulty to observe its intracranial growth in real-time during the tumor growth stage. Therefore, Alfa Cytology' animal models of brain tumors, which can be monitored in real-time, are essential for our customers to study the pathogenesis of brain tumors and explore therapeutic approaches.
We provide in situ transplantation model building services for brain tumors
Cells labeled with GFP and luciferase gene-labeled dual fluorescent systems have shown great advantages in the study of tumor animal models such as high safety, easy operation, low price, and real-time quantitative monitoring. We used U251 cells and screened a stable transfer cell line after GFP-luciferase gene labeling to establish a non-invasive, real-time monitorable glioma animal model for our customers.
Various new ideas and methods for glioma treatment have been put into preclinical and clinical practice applications, but the results are less satisfactory. A large number of experiences with successful animal experiments and poor clinical evaluations indicate that animal models do not reflect the real physiological characteristics of patients' tumors. This is why we have developed such a reliable and stable glioma in situ transplantation model for our customers. This allows you to observe the development of tumors in the brain in real time, non-invasively, and accurately.
Meningioma is one of the most common intracranial tumors, and malignant meningioma is a challenge in meningioma treatment because of its recurrent recurrence after surgery. One of the reasons for the slow progress in basic research on meningioma is the lack of good cellular as well as animal models. Intracranial in situ tumorigenesis, which helps to realize the study of tumor interaction with the surrounding microenvironment, can maximize the simulation of the real situation of tumors in the skull. Therefore, we have established a mouse in situ tumorigenesis model of malignant meningioma for our customers, which can provide you with more options for basic meningioma research.
- We have improved our primary culture method for malignant meningioma by using the differential apposition method, which purifies malignant meningioma cells and reduces the number of mixed fibroblasts.
- We established a mouse in situ tumorigenesis model along with a mouse subcutaneous transplantation tumor model, compared the pathological characteristics of the tumors formed by the two models, and determined that the tumors formed by the in situ tumorigenesis model did not change their inherent pathological characteristics compared with the subcutaneous transplantation tumorigenesis model.
Case Study - Patient-Derived Malignant Meningioma Model (MN3)
Model Introduction
The patient-derived orthotopic malignant meningioma model (MN3) provides a clinically relevant and biologically faithful preclinical platform for studying higher-grade meningiomas (HGM; WHO grades II and III) and evaluating novel therapeutic strategies. Derived from a recurrent malignant meningioma, this model recapitulates key histopathological and molecular features of the original patient tumor, including loss of NF2 (merlin) expression and the identical NF2 splice site mutation. The model is serially transplantable and lethal within 3 months post-implantation, making it ideal for disease biology studies and therapeutic evaluation.
Model Information
Model Details
- Model: MN3 Patient-Derived Malignant Meningioma Model
- Animal: SCID Mice
- Weight: 18-20 g
Patient Information
- Sex: Female
- Race/Ethnicity: White
- Treatment: Recurrent tumor post-surgery
- Age: 53
- Diagnosis: Recurrent Malignant Meningioma (WHO Grade III).
Model Construction
The model is established by orthotopically implanting MN3 tumorsphere cells into the frontal subdural region of SCID mice. Cell inoculum is 5×104 cells/mouse in 3-5 µL injection volume. Xenografts are serially transplantable after brief (24–48 h) sphere culture, with stable tumor phenotype maintained across passages.
Fig. 1 Workflow of MN3 PDX model establishment. (Source: Alfa Cytology)
Model Data
- Tumorigenicity: MN3 cells demonstrate consistent and reproducible tumor formation in SCID mice, with 100% engraftment rate at 50,000 cells. Xenografts are lethal within 2–3 months post-implantation and serially transplantable.
- Histopathological & Molecular Fidelity: MN3 xenografts faithfully recapitulate the histopathological and molecular features of the original patient tumor, including high cellularity, nuclear atypia, elevated Ki67 labeling index (44%), strong vimentin expression, brain invasion, whorl formation, and the patient-specific NF2 mutation.
- Therapeutic Efficacy: Oncolytic virotherapy demonstrates potent anti-meningioma activity in vitro and in vivo. In orthotopic MN3 xenografts, intratumoral treatment significantly prolonged survival compared to control, with long-term tumor-free survival observed in a subset of animals.
Fig. 2 In vivo efficacy of oncolytic virotherapy in orthotopic MN3 xenograft model. Data are presented as mean ± standard error (SEM). (Source: Alfa Cytology)
Alfa Cytology successfully constructed a mouse intracranial tumorigenesis model using primary human malignant meningioma cells and established a glioma animal model using U251 cells and a stable transgenic cell line screened with GFP-luciferase gene labeling. This provides a reliable research model for our customers to study the effect of tumor microenvironment on the occurrence of malignant meningioma, glioma, and other brain tumors, their development, and tumor invasion to surrounding tissues. Please feel free to contact us for customized in situ brain tumor transplant models.
All of our services and products are intended for preclinical research use only and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or manage patients.
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