Real‐Time In Vivo Confocal Fluorescence Imaging of Prostate Cancer Bone‐Marrow Micrometastasis Development at the Cellular Level in Nude Mice

In the present report, we demonstrate in vivo fluorescence imaging of bone‐marrow micrometastasis of prostate cancer at the cellular level in nude mice. PC‐3 human prostate cancer cells labeled with green fluorescent protein (GFP) or red fluorescent protein (RFP) were injected into the left ventricle or intratibial bone marrow of nude mice. PC‐3‐GFP, as well as selected high metastatic variants of PC‐3‐GFP, PC‐3‐GFP‐BM6 or PC‐3‐RFP were visualized by real‐time fluorescence imaging, to traffic and grow in the bone marrow. Formation of bone marrow micrometastasis could be imaged at the single‐cell level in live mice, using confocal microscopy. The ability to track bone marrow micrometastasis in real time at the cellular level provides a visual target for evaluating new therapeutics for this recalcitrant disease. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 2533–2537, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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