Detection of DsRed-expressing U87 Astrocytoma Xenografts in SCID Mice and the Benefit of Using Spectral Unmixing

By use of recombinant lentiviruses, U87-MG cells, originally derived from a glioblatoma patient (Ponten and MacIntyre, 1968), were transduced with the gene coding for the DsRed fluorescent protein. Fluorescent gene expression was detected in vitro and ex vivo in brain tumors (Gole and Huszthy et al., 2012). Tumor growth can be followed longitudinally in vivo, using non-invasive imaging methods. This application notes describes the use of U87-MG-DsRed cells that were implanted subcutaneously to evaluate the optical imaging capabilities of this model for further tumor treatment applications.