Monitoring of prostate cancer growth and metastasis using a PSA luciferase report plasmid in a mouse model

ABSTRACT

Objective: To construct a PSA luciferase report plasmid and monitor the growth and metastasis of prostate cancer after emasculation in SCID mice. Methods: PSA promoter sequence and luciferase gene were amplified by PCR and subsequently inserted into pZsGreen1-1 vector to construct pPSA-FL-Luc vector. LNCaP cells that were stably transfected with pPSA-FL-Luc were used to establish a SCID mouse xenograft model. Then, the growth and metastasis of prostate cancer were monitored via living imaging. Results: We successfully constructed a PSA luciferase plasmid, pPSA-FL-Luc. DHT enhanced luciferase activity in a concentration-dependent manner in 293T cells with pPSA-FL-Luc transfection. Prostate cancer SCID mouse model was established with pPSA-FL-Luc transfected LNCaP cells. In tumor bearing mice with or without emasculation, pPSA-FL-Luc plasmid was applied to monitored tumor growth and metastasis based on bioluminescence imaging. Conclusions: We construct a pPSA-FL-Luc plasmid, which stably expresses luciferase and can be applied to monitor tumor development in a prostate SCID mouse model.