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Many clinical evidences demonstrate that the sites of distant metastasis are not random and certain malignant tumors
show a tendency to develop metastases in specific organs (e.g., brain, liver, and lungs). However, an appropriate animal
model to characterize the metastatic nature of transplantable human cancer cell lines has not been reported well. Recent
advances in bio-luminescent imaging (BLI) technologies have facilitated the quantitative analysis of various cellular
processes in vivo. To visualize the fate of tumor progression in the living mice, we are constructing a luciferaseexpressing
human cancer cell library (including melanoma, colon, breast, and prostate cancer). Herein we demonstrate
that the BLI technology in couple with a fine ultrasonic guidance realizes cancer cell-type dependent metastasis to the
specific organs. For example, some melanoma cell lines showed frequent metastasis to brain, lungs, and lymph nodes in
the mouse model. Notably, reflecting the clinical features of melanoma, breast, and prostate cancer, some of the cell lines
showed preferential metastasis to the brain. Moreover, these cellular resources for BLI allow a high throughput screening
for potential anti-cancer drugs. Thus, this BLI-mediated additional strategy with the luciferase-expressing cancer cell
resources should promote many translational studies for human cancer therapy.
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