Abstract
BackgroundThe chick chorio-allantoic membrane (CAM) assay is a commonly used method for studying angiogenic or anti-angiogenic activities in vivo. The ease of access allows direct monitoring of tumour growth by biomicroscopy and the possibility to screen many samples in an inexpensive way. The CAM model provides a powerful tool to study effects of molecules, which interfere with physiological angiogenesis, or experimental tumours derived from cancer cell lines. We therefore screened eight osteosarcoma cell lines for their ability to form vascularized tumours on the CAM.FindingsWe implanted 3-5 million cells of human osteosarcoma lines (HOS, MG63, MNNG-HOS, OST, SAOS, SJSA1, U2OS, ZK58) on the CAM at day 10 of embryonic development. Tumour growth was monitored by in vivo biomicroscopy at different time points and tumours were fixed in paraformaldehyde seven days after cell grafting. The tissue was observed, photographed and selected cases were further analyzed using standard histology.From the eight cell lines the MNNG-HOS, U2OS and SAOS were able to form solid tumours when grafted on the CAM. The MNNG-HOS tumours showed the most reliable and consistent growth and were able to penetrate the chorionic epithelium, grow in the CAM stroma and induce a strong angiogenic response.ConclusionsOur results show that the CAM assay is a useful tool for studying osteosarcoma growth. The model provides an excellent alternative to current rodent models and could serve as a preclinical screening assay for anticancer molecules. It might increase the speed and efficacy of the development of new drugs for the treatment of osteosarcoma.
Highlights
Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumour that usually affects children and adolescents
Our results show that the chorio-allantoic membrane (CAM) assay is a useful tool for studying osteosarcoma growth
On day 10 of development, small plastic rings made out of ThermanoxTM discs were placed on the CAM and 25 μl of medium containing different cell lines were deposited into the rings after gentle laceration of the CAM surface
Summary
Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumour that usually affects children and adolescents. After the introduction of cytotoxic polychemotherapy to the treatment of osteosarcoma tremendous advances were achieved, increasing the survival rate from under 20% to over 60%[1]. It is of critical importance to identify new targets and new molecules with efficient antitumour activity. The chick chorio-allantoic membrane (CAM) assay is a commonly used method for studying angiogenic or anti-angiogenic activities in vivo. The ease of access allows direct monitoring of tumour growth by biomicroscopy and the possibility to screen many samples in an inexpensive way. The CAM model provides a powerful tool to study effects of molecules, which interfere with physiological angiogenesis, or experimental tumours derived from cancer cell lines. We screened eight osteosarcoma cell lines for their ability to form vascularized tumours on the CAM
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