Establishment of an efficient bladder cancer metastasis model by tail vein injection of bioluminescent T24 cells

Objective To construct metastasis model of bladder cancer in nude mice by tail vein injection of different doses of T24 cells with Luciferase. Methods By constructing a lentiviral plasmid containing Luciferase fragment, a stable expression of firefly luciferase T24-Luc was obtained. Then 5 nude mice in each group were injected with 2×106, 4×106, 8×106 T24-Luc cells by tail vein injection. The distribution of T24-Luc in nude mice was observed by small animal in vivo visual fluorescence imaging at 2, 3 and 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, the nude mice were executed and the lungs were taken out to observe the number of metastatic lesions. Finally, t-test was performed. Results Bioluminescent bladder cancer cell line T24-Luc was successfully constructed. The bioluminescent activity was highly linear with the number of cells (R2=0.995). The model of bladder cancer metastasis was established by intravenous injection of T24-Luc in vivo. Three groups of bladder cancer metastasis models were successfully established by intravenous injection of T24-Luc into the tail vein, with 5 in each group. No metastasis was found in nude mice injected with 2 ×106 T24-Luc cells. The number of metastases in 4 ×106 T24-Luc cells injected group was 6.80±1.72, and that in 8 ×106 T24-Luc cells injected group was 29.80±3.18. Conclusion The bladder cancer metastasis model constructed by intravenous injection of 8×106 T24-Luc cells has a higher success rate of metastasis. It can successfully construct a non-invasive and sustainable dynamic observation model of bladder cancer lung metastasis. Key words: Bladder neoplasms; Bioluminescence; Lung metastasis; Models, animal