Animal models of breast cancer: experimental design and their use in nutrition and psychosocial research

Abstract

This is the second Special Issue addressing the diversity and use of animal models of breast cancer. The previous issue (Breast Cancer Res Treat 39:1-135, 1996), dealt with a variety of topics such as the characteristics of chemically- and virally-induced rodent models, immunobiologies of immunedeficient mice, transgenic mouse models, and models of metastasis. In the first part of this second Special Issue, the articles address animal models for studying life-style factors, including psychosocial, exercise, and nutritional research in breast cancer. In the second section, there is emphasis on the controversial area of dietary fat, with other authors addressing caloric restriction and dietary isoflavonoids, retinoids, and monoterpenes in the third part. In the final section, a series of authors provide suggestions for approaching various issues involving experimental design, including nutritional studies, drug screening models, statistical considerations, quantitation of tumor growth kinetics, and animal husbandry. These articles, and some additional issues raised during the previous Special Issue, are briefly discussed in this overview. They include a further evaluation of the relative merits of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene and N-nitroso-N-methylurea as carcinogens, and of the use of the AIN76 and AIN93 semipurified diets in studies of mammary carcinogenesis.

Thymosin α1 as a Chemopreventive Agent in Lung and Breast Cancer

“…Because T␣1 prevented mammary cancer in both animal models of mammary cancer, it is a chemopreventive agent regardless of estrogen receptor status. 36 Previously, it was found that retinoic acid, which increases TGF-␤ expression, increased survival of C3(1)SV40T antigen mice significantly from 20 to 23 weeks and reduced tumor burden by 67%. 37 VIP hybrid, which is a VIP receptor antagonist, increased survival of C3(1)SV40T antigen mice by 2 weeks and reduced the tumor burden by 50%.…”

“…Estrogen receptors are not abundant in C3(1)SV40T antigen mice, however, they are present in the Fisher rat. Because Tα1 prevented mammary cancer in both animal models of mammary cancer, it is a chemopreventive agent regardless of estrogen receptor status 36 . Previously, it was found that retinoic acid, which increases TGF‐β expression, increased survival of C3(1)SV40T antigen mice significantly from 20 to 23 weeks and reduced tumor burden by 67% 37 .…”

Patient-Derived Xenografts of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer: Resurgence of an Old Model for Investigation of Modern Concepts of Tailored Therapy and Cancer Stem Cells

“…There are many strains of genetically determined immunodeficient mice containing single mutations (e.g., nude, scid, beige, xid, rag-1 null, rag-2 null) or combined mutations, (e.g., bg/nu, bg/nu/xid, nude/scid, nod/scid) available for cancer research [16–18]. These strains have different immunological impairment and the availability of more permissive mouse strains can strongly increase the efficiency of xenotransplantation; however severely immunocompromised mice also have a higher cost and their manipulation can be extremely demanding requiring controlled husbandry environment and highly trained personnel.…”

Metastasis Genes in Breast Cancer Metastasis to Bone

“…Chromosome 6 hybrids engin-279 eered to express green fluorescent protein were used 280 to demonstrate that they completed every step of the 281 metastatic cascade except proliferation at the second-282 ary site [67]. Using subtractive hybridization the 283 KISS-1 metastasis suppressor was identified [68]. 284 Also using the C8161 melanoma, MMCT of chromo-285 some 1 suppressed metastasis [69].…”