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Implanting Glioblastoma Spheroids into Rat Brains and Monitoring Tumor Growth by MRI Volumetry

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RNAi and Small Regulatory RNAs in Stem Cells

Abstract

The outcome of patients suffering from glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains poor with a median survival of less than 15 months. To establish innovative therapeutical approaches or to analyze the effect of protein overexpression or protein knockdown by RNA interference in vivo, animal models are mandatory. Here, we describe the implantation of C6 glioma spheroids into the rats’ brain and how to follow tumor growth by MRI scans. We show that C6 cells grown in Sprague-Dawley rats share several morphologic features of human glioblastoma like pleomorphic cells, areas of necrosis, vascular proliferation, and tumor cell invasion into the surrounding brain tissue. In addition, we describe a method for tumor volumetry utilizing the CISS 3D- or contrast-enhanced T1-weighted 3D sequence and freely available post-processing software.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Stefanie Gerngras, Siglinde Kühnel, and Virgil Michels for technical assistance. We also thank Petra Löhr for artwork.

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Correspondence to Carsten Hagemann .

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Löhr, M. et al. (2017). Implanting Glioblastoma Spheroids into Rat Brains and Monitoring Tumor Growth by MRI Volumetry. In: Zhang, B. (eds) RNAi and Small Regulatory RNAs in Stem Cells. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1622. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7108-4_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7108-4_12

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7106-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7108-4

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