Dual-color fluorescence imaging of tumor-host interaction with green and red fluorescent proteins

Dual-color fluorescence imaging using red fluorescent protein (RFP)-expressing tumors transplanted in green fluorescent protein (GFP) expressing transgenic mice has been shown to be a powerful technology to study tumor-host interaction. Host animals include mice which express the GFP transgene in essentially all cells as well as animals in which the regulatory elements of the stem cell marker nestin drive GFP. The general GFP-transgenic mouse is available in both the normal and athymic nude (nu/nu) background. These models show with great clarity the details of the tumor-stroma interaction especially tumor induced angiogenesis, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, stromal fibroblasts and macrophages. GFP-expressing tumor vasculature could be visualized interacting with the RFP-expressing tumor cells transplanted to the nestin-driven GFP transgenic mice which expressed nestin-GFP in nascent blood vessels was shown as a marker of nascent tumor angiogenesis. Dual-color fluorescence imaging, which visualizes the tumor-host interaction by whole-body imaging and at the cellular level in fresh tissues, dramatically expanding previous studies in fixed and stained preparations (1).