Xenograft Animal Service: Immunocompromised NOD/SCID Mice

Altogen Labs offers in vivo xenograft services to conduct drug development for oncology, inflammation, diabetes, infectious diseases, obesity, immunology and pain research. Xenograft is a powerful research tool in oncology, playing a major role in development of new anti-cancer medicines.

Xenograft in vivo services are performed to measure the activity of compounds based on the rate of engrafted tumor growth.  Xenotransplantation process involves administration of tumorigenic cell lines via subcutaneous injection. Alternative approaches include orthotopic, intramuscular, intravenous, intratracheal, or intraperitoneal administration. Altogen Labs offers assistance in choosing the best model suitable for clients experimental goals. Animal handling and maintenance is IACUC-regulated and GLP-compliant. We provide detailed experiment procedures, health reports and experimental data. Additional experimental services include tissue collection, histology, RNA isolation and gene expression analysis.

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BASIC STUDY DESIGN 

Tumors are established in a group of 6- to 7-week-old female BALB/c athymic (nude) mice (or 9-11 week old NOD/SCID immunocompromised mice) by subcutaneous injection of tumor cell line cells (typically 1,000,000 cells per animal).

Clients select a cell line of interest (must be tumorigenic) and assigns the number of experimental groups and the size of each group. The dosing of compounds is initiated when the mean tumor size reaches 50-100 mm³. Clients are expected to provide dose/group assignment instructions for each group.

Administration options include the dosing route (intratumoral, intramuscular, oral, intravenous, intratracheal, subcutaneous, or intraperitoneal), dosing frequency (for example, once or twice a day), and dosing duration. If the client elects to include the cyclophosphamide positive control group, cyclophosphamide (50 mg/kg) will be administered by intramuscular injection daily for the duration of the study.

We perform daily analysis with cage-side observations, and measure body weight and tumor volume every 2 days. Tumor volume (mm³) is calculated using the "(W x W x L) / 2" formula, where W is tumor width and L is tumor length.

Altogen Labs offers multiple xenograft tumor models, including A549, DU-145, PC-3, U87MG, MDA-MB, PANC1, Caki-1, Caki-2, SKMEL, A431, LnCAP, FaDu, HeLa, SKOV-3, SW-480, and many other cell lines (see Table 1 below for most commonly used cell lines). Following acclimatization, mice are grouped according to body weight. Human cancer cell lines are prepared in matrigel and grafted subcutaneously into the flank area. Mice are checked daily for clinical signs and tumor appearance.

When tumors begin to appear, animals are grouped based on tumor volume. Mice are dosed once or twice a day for 28 days via one route of administration (choice of oral, intratumoral, intraperitoneal, intratracheal, intramuscular, or subcutaneous). Blood sera can be collected at termination, and tumors and other major tissues can be collected and preserved if required.

Contact us with the details of your project at info@altogenlabs.com or call Altogen Labs technical support: 512-433-6177. We will be happy to send an immediate price and timeline quote. Please note that experimental details help us provide an accurate estimate.

see also: Pharmacology and Toxicology Testing: IC50 for Tumor Cell Lines | Xenograft Animal Service: Immunocompromised NOD/SCID Mice | Therapeutic RNAi Development: Targeted siRNA, qPCR Assays | Liposome Encapsulation Services: siRNA, miRNA, DNA, Proteins | ELISA and Cell-Based Assay Development (Cell Cycle, Viability) | Apoptosis Assay: Caspase-3 and Caspase-7 Cell Line Screen | RNAi Consulting: Technology Development and Evaluation