Zebrafish xenograft breast cancer models for high-throughput drug response screening

The heterogeneity and dynamic nature of cancerous tumors, such as those seen in breast cancer, pose a unique challenge in determining treatment regimens. The use of zebrafish as an in vivo model of breast cancer provides a high-throughput model with the potential to screen for efficacious drugs on a patient-by-patient basis. In this study, we use two-photon microscopy to measure metabolic changes in zebrafish with xenografted breast cancer tumors before, during, and after treatment with the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel. We use this metabolic imaging data to evaluate the zebrafish as a robust in vivo model of breast cancer. Preliminary results suggest the xenograft tumors respond to treatment with paclitaxel at 48 hours post treatment, as demonstrated by significant changes in NAD(P)H fluorescence lifetimes.

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