Growth of human digestive-tumour xenografts in athymic nude rats

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Abstract
The athymic nude rat rnu/rnu was established as an in vivo model for the acceptance of human digestive-tumor xenografts. The successful xenografting of 7/12 (58%) primary explants from patients with digestive cancer is reported. Successful xenografting also occurred in 21/25 (84%) pancreatic tumors derived from a pancreatic exocrine adenocarcinoma (GER) maintained in cell culture; 2 of those were successfully passaged in nude rats. The simultaneous implantation of these tumors into nude mice led to an almost identical take rate. Passage of 1 colonic and 1 pancreatic xenograft from nude rats into nude mice, and transplantation back into nude rats, increased the take rates. The critical period for the establishment of primary tumor growth was usually 28-42 days. The xenografts maintained histological and cytological characteristics of the primary explants or of the original tumor from which the cell line derived. The karyotype of the cell line was also maintained in the solid tumor. Three murine tumors were successfully grown as xenografts. Despite their immunoincompetence, the rats in this study showed no increased morbidity or mortality when kept in conventional conditions, compared with animals housed in isolators. The athymic nude rat will become a valuable complementary tool to the nude mouse for the establishment and maintenance of human digestive tumors and for surgical and serial serological studies.

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