Tissue distribution of 131I radiolabeled transferrin in the athymic nude mouse: localization of a human colon adenocarcinoma HT-29 xenograft.

The tissue distribution of 131I-transferrin (131I-Tf) was studied in athymic nude mice having s.c. human colonic adenocarcinoma HT-29 xenografts. Four days after 131I-Tf injection, the 131I-specific activity measured in the HT-29 tumor, i.e. amount of radioactivity per gram of fresh tissue, represented 0.31 +/- 0.09% of the injected radioactivity and was 1.90 fold more than that measured in the murine colon (P less than 0.05). After correction for intravascular 131I-Tf as estimated by means of 99mTc-Sn in vivo labeling of red blood cells, the 131I specific activity observed in the HT-29 tumor was 7.21 fold more than that observed in the murine colon. This subtracting method enabled us to localize a HT-29 tumor xenograft by gamma scintigraphy of the entire animal and demonstrated that 131I-Tf could be a non-specific but potent marker for human colon cancer.