Objective: To establish a gastric cancer metastasis model based on clinical tumor specimens, and to provide an individualized animal model for the study of gastric cancer metastasis. Methods: The fresh surgical specimens of gastric cancer were subcutaneously transplanted into nude mice to establish a gastric cancer patient xenograft model. The tissue was orthotopically transplanted into the gastric muscle layer of nude mice, the physical signs of nude mice were continuously observed, and the occurrence of tumor metastasis was detected by near-infrared fluorescence in vivo imaging technology. Tumor-bearing mice were dissected, and the lung metastases were further transplanted into nude mice subcutaneously to obtain Solid tumors. HE staining was used to observe the structural characteristics of primary tumors and metastases, and (short tandem repeat) STR was used to analyze the genetic characteristics of primary tumors and metastases. PCR-Array was used to analyze the expression of metastasis-related genes in metastases and primary tumors.
Results: The gastric cancer PDX model was successfully established, and the tissue structure of the transplanted tumor was basically the same as that of the patient. It was found that the mouse with the number C19751 developed lung and liver metastasis through gastric orthotopic transplantation. The lung metastases were subcutaneously transplanted to obtain solid tumors, STR The analysis showed that the primary tumor maintained the same genetic characteristics as the lung metastases. PCR-Array results showed that the expression of CXCL12, IGF1 and MMP2 genes were significantly up-regulated in the metastases compared with the primary tumors.
Conclusion: The gastric cancer metastasis model was successfully established using clinical tumor specimens, which provided a good individualized model for gastric cancer metastasis research.