Athymic Animal & Xenograft Core

Overview of Services

The Athymic Animal & Xenograft Core consists of two physical sites, one at Case Western Reserve University and one at Cleveland Clinic at the Taussig Cancer Institute. The purpose of the core is to help principal investigators of CWRU and Cleveland Clinic perform tumor experiments, angiogenesis studies, and pharmacokinetic studies in mice. The Core routinely conducts animal experiments involving several syngeneic murine tumor models, and several human xenograft (athymic nude mouse, and NSG – NOD scid IL2Rg mouse) tumor models. In addition, the Core has developed several orthotopic tumor models: brain, lung, breast, renal, spleen, skin, ovarian, prostate, bladder, and pancreas. The Core is always willing to develop additional new models.

Core services utilize murine models to facilitate in vivo cancer drug screening, drug evaluation and drug development. Core services include drug administration (sub-cutaneous, intravenous, intraperitoneal, prolonged slow-release silastic capsule), blood drawing (repetitive - saphenous vein, or terminal – cardiac puncture) for pharmacokinetic pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) studies, absorption distribution metabolism excretion (ADME) studies, syngeneic and xenograft tumor models, orthotopic tumor models. The goal is to help in evaluation of new pharmacologic agents by providing data on tumor growth, metastasis, angiogenesis, and gene expression. The facility also provides consultation services to assist the investigator in all aspects of animal tumor model development.

Services Provided:

• Drug administration including intravenously (IV), intramuscularly (IM), intraperitonealy (IP), and subcutaneously (SC)
• Blood draw including cardiac and retro-orbital
• Tumor cell injection including cardiac and tail vein
• Xenografts: including subcutaneous or orthotopic transplantation into a variety of organs. These include mammary fat pad, ovary, oviduct, kidney, pancreas, and brain
• Mouse weight and tumor caliper measurements
• Delivery and imaging of luciferase-labeled tumors
• Organ and tissue harvest
• Assistance in preparing IACUC protocols for individual laboratories

Leadership

Location and hours of operation

Links and Resources

1. CWRU AAXC Webpage

Contacts