Mouse Mammary Intraductal (MIND) Method for Transplantation of Patient Derived Primary DCIS Cells and Cell Lines

Abstract

The MIND method involves intraductal injection of patient derived ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) cells and DCIS cell lines (MCF10DCIS.COM and SUM225) inside the mouse mammary ducts [Video 1 and Figure 1 in Behbod <i>et al.</i> (2009)]. This method mimics the normal environment of DCIS and facilitates study of the natural progression of human DCIS, <i>i.e</i>., their initial growth as carcinoma <i>in situ</i> within the ducts, followed by invasion into the stroma through the myoepithelial cell layer and basement membrane (Behbod <i>et al.</i>, 2009; Valdez <i>et al.</i>, 2011). In order to demonstrate that transplantation procedure is successful, the transplanted mammary glands may be excised as early as two weeks following intraductal injection of cells followed by Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining and/or immunofluorescence staining using human specific cytokeratin 5 and/or 19 [please see Figures 2-4 in Behbod <i>et al.</i> (2009)]. Additionally, the presence of trypan blue inside the mouse mammary ducts immediately following intraductal injection is the best indicator that the injection was successful (Video 1 starting at 4:33 sec).