Objective: To establish nude mice model of bone metastasis of breast cancer, and study the best method to evaluate the model.
Methods:The human breast cancer cell, MDA-MB-231PEGFPN, was injected into left ventricule of nude mice to construct the bone metastasis of breast cancer animal model. Methods of X-ray, whole body optical imaging and pathology were used to evaluate the bone damage after six weeks.
Results:After six weeks, the result of pathology showed that breast cancer cells had already spread to brain, bone marrow and lung of nude mice. The degree of bone destruction was seen clearly in X-ray, and location of breast cancer cells was observed by whole body optical imaging system.
Conclusions:The results showed that combined application of X-ray, whole body optical imaging and pathology are the best modalities to evaluate bone metastasis of breast cancer in nude mice.