Establishment of Animal Models with Orthotopic Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most serious health problems worldwide. Many researchers have investigated HCC at the level of genes, ribonucleic acid, proteins, cells, and animals. The resultant development of animal models and monitoring methods has improved the effectiveness of guidelines provided to researchers working with preclinical HCC models. HCC in animal models and clinical patients is monitored by various current imaging modalities such as ultrasound (US) imaging, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET) and bioluminescence imaging (BLI). These techniques are currently used for both preclinical and clinical assessment, and provide valuable diagnostic information. In this article, we have mainly reviewed the established animal models and the assessment of orthotopic HCC using imaging modalities. Additionally, we have introduced a method of orthotopic HCC rat model developed in our laboratory. We have furthermore evaluated the occurrence of tumor mass using molecular imaging techniques.

Comparison of embolic effect between water‐in‐oil emulsion and microspheres in transarterial embolization for rat hepatocellular carcinoma model

“…There are several rat HCC models, including N1S1, McA-RH7777, and 1376 MAT BIII. [18][19][20] N1S1 is a hypervascular tumor similar to human HCC. Namely, it shows early enhancement on arterial phase and washout in portal and delayed phases in dynamic computed tomography and US images.…”

“…The major advantage of this model is that HCC cells can be implanted in an animal model which allows a catheter to be inserted into the hepatic artery. There are several rat HCC models, including N1S1, McA‐RH7777, and 1376 MAT BIII 18–20 . N1S1 is a hypervascular tumor similar to human HCC.…”

Efficacy of combining ING4 and TRAIL genes in cancer-targeting gene virotherapy strategy: first evidence in preclinical hepatocellular carcinoma

“… 26 , 27 Furthermore, while no experimental animal model is expected to completely cover the aggressive behavior and complexity of human HCC, it has been revealed that establishment of an in vivo orthotopic cancer model in its target organ is being the most reliable one and its preclinical outcomes are more credible and applicable to clinical translation if compared with subcutaneous xenograft model. 28 Additionally, Ad-ΔB/TRAIL and Ad-ΔB/ING4 were administered systemically and in vivo BLI, which is a non-invasive and convenient diagnostic tool with excellent quantitative sensitivity and assessment, 29 was used to monitor tumor growth and estimate the rate of tumor response to each applied therapeutic strategy. Overall, our collective findings demonstrated that combination therapy failed to exert synergistically enhanced cancer cell killing efficacy due to Ad-ΔB/TRAIL eliciting more potent cancer cell killing effect than Ad-ΔB/ING4 in vitro , but induced more potent tumor growth inhibition than either monotherapy in vivo without observable overlapping toxicity ( Table 1 ).…”

Effects of curcumin in pediatric epithelial liver tumors: inhibition of tumor growth and alpha-fetoproteinin vitroandin vivoinvolving the NFkappaB- and the beta-catenin pathways

“…The infrequent occurrence of liver metastases from a primary subcutaneously implanted tumor comes along with infrequent and unpredictable orthotopic growth [ 21 ]. Only few reports present data of tumor uptake-rates [ 22 , 23 ]. We achieved an intrahepatic multinodular tumor growth through intrasplenic tumor cell injection.…”