Fluorescent Protein-Expressing Transgenic Nude Mice as Hosts for Patient Tumors

Abstract

Labeling of patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) tumors is important, since they mostly grow and metastasize internally. Growth in transgenic nude mice expressing various colors of fluorescent proteins in most organs can serve to label the stroma of PDOX tumors. We developed the transgenic green fluorescent protein (GFP) nude mouse with ubiquitous GFP expression. In the adult GFP mice, most organs brightly expressed GFP. We also developed transgenic red fluorescent protein (RFP) nude mouse DsRed2 in essentially all tissues. The cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) nude mouse was developed by our laboratory. In the CFP transgenic nude mice, the pancreas and reproductive organs displayed the strongest fluorescent signals of all internal organs which vary in intensity. The nestin-driven GFP (ND-GFP) transgenic nude mouse was developed by our laboratory and expresses GFP in nascent blood vessels and other select organs. The ND-GFP nude mouse is a unique system to visualize nascent angiogenesis in PDOX models.