Abstract
Metastatic breast carcinoma has a great tendency to spread to the mandible. It is concomitantly associated with bone destruction, food intake disorder, and a poorer prognosis. Appropriate animal models need to be developed for a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the metastatic process of breast cancer cells to mandible and to test the effects of potential lead compounds. Here, we assessed the metastasis model of intracardiac injection using luciferase-transfected metastatic breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231Luc+) by determining the incidences of metastasis, mCT images, and histopathological results. A high bioluminescence signal mainly detected mandibular lesions with less frequent distal femora and proximal tibiae lesions. Extensive mandibular bone destruction occurred in nude mice grafted with metastatic breast cancer cells. This type of animal model might be a useful tool in assessing therapeutic implications and the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs for osteolytic cancers.
Highlights
Bone is one of the most common sites for metastasis29
Material and reagents Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM), Hank’s balanced salt solution (HBSS), fetal bovine serum (FBS), antibiotic-antimycotic mixture containing 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 ml/ml streptomycin, phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and 0.25% trypsin-EDTA were purchased from Gibco BRL Co. (Rockville, MD, USA)
The bone volume was determined from the processed images shown in Figure 2B using CT analyzer (CTAn) software with the same diameter given as where bioluminescence signal and osteolytic site were overlapping (Figure 2C)
Summary
Bone is one of the most common sites for metastasis. Bone metastases represent a major complication of malignant tumors. Metastatic tumors to the mandibles not a uncommon phenomenon and account for approximately 1% of all malignant oral tumors. Metastatic tumors in the mandible are more frequently reported than those in the oral mucosa. Breast carcinoma metastasizes to the mandible three times as often as any other malignant tumor. The pathogenesis of the metastatic process in the mandible remains unclear. Metastatic tumors to the oral region are challenging and difficult to diagnose because of their relative infrequency. They should be considered in the differential diagnosis of inflammatory and reactive lesions that are common to the oral region
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