A reliable murine model of bone metastasis by injecting cancer cells through caudal arteries

Abstract

Although the current murine model of bone metastasis using intracardiac (IC) injection successfully recapitulates the process of bone metastasis, further progress in the study of bone metastasis requires a new model to circumvent some limitations of this model. Here, we present a new murine model of bone metastasis achieved by injecting cancer cells through the intra-caudal arterial (CA). This model does not require high technical proficiency, predominantly delivers cancer cells to bone marrow of hind limbs with much higher efficiency than IC injection, and greatly shortens the period of overt bone metastasis development. Moreover, CA injection barely causes acute death of mice, enabling us to inject a larger number of cancer cells to further accelerate the development of bone metastasis with a wide variety of cell lines. Our model may open a new avenue for understanding the bone metastatic processes and development of drugs preventing bone metastasis and recurrence.