A Quantitative System for Studying Metastasis Using Transparent Zebrafish
Metastasis is the defining feature of advanced malignancy, yet remains challenging to study in laboratory environments. Here, we describe a high-throughput zebrafish system for comprehensive, in vivo assessment of metastatic biology. First, we generated several stable cell lines from melanomas of tr...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Association for Cancer Research
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107192 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7603-8396 |
| Summary: | Metastasis is the defining feature of advanced malignancy, yet remains challenging to study in laboratory environments. Here, we describe a high-throughput zebrafish system for comprehensive, in vivo assessment of metastatic biology. First, we generated several stable cell lines from melanomas of transgenic mitfa-BRAF[superscript V600E];p53[superscript −/−] fish. We then transplanted the melanoma cells into the transparent casper strain to enable highly quantitative measurement of the metastatic process at single-cell resolution. Using computational image analysis of the resulting metastases, we generated a metastasis score, μ, that can be applied to quantitative comparison of metastatic capacity between experimental conditions. Furthermore, image analysis also provided estimates of the frequency of metastasis-initiating cells (∼1/120,000 cells). Finally, we determined that the degree of pigmentation is a key feature defining cells with metastatic capability. The small size and rapid generation of progeny combined with superior imaging tools make zebrafish ideal for unbiased high-throughput investigations of cell-intrinsic or microenvironmental modifiers of metastasis. The approaches described here are readily applicable to other tumor types and thus serve to complement studies also employing murine and human cell culture systems. |
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