Measurement of beta-galactosidase tissue levels in a tumor cell xenograft model.

The nude mouse xenograft model is commonly used to examine the growth and development of human cancer cells in vivo. Tumor cells transfected with the Lac-Z reporter gene for beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) enzyme activity can be used to quantify tumor and metastatic development in this model. The present study was designed to develop methodology to accurately measure beta-gal in tumor and tissue samples from a nude mouse model. In this study, we developed tissue extraction procedures and compared the sensitivity and accuracy of o-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG) and chlorophenol red beta-D-galactopyranoside (CPRG); two beta-gal substrates. Our results demonstrated that the CPRG substrate is more sensitive and accurate in the measurement of beta-gal activity than the ONPG substrate. In addition, matrices and blood in tissue samples are less likely to interfere with the CPRG assay. We concluded that the CPRG substrate-based assay represents a reliable technique for the determination of beta-gal activity in transfected cancer cells present in tumor and tissue specimens from the nude mouse xenograft model.