Color-Coded Imaging of Cancer and Stromal-Cell Interaction in the Pancreatic-Cancer Tumor Microenvironment (TME).

The tumor microenvironment (TME) contains stromal cells in a complex interaction with cancer cells. This relationship has become better understood with the use of fluorescent proteins for in vivo imaging, originally developed by our laboratories. Spectrally-distinct fluorescent proteins can be used for color-coded imaging of the complex interaction of the tumor microenvironment in the living state using cancer cells expressing a fluorescent protein of one color and host mice expressing another-color fluorescent protein. Cancer cells engineered in vitro to express a fluorescent protein were orthotopically implanted into transgenic mice expressing a fluorescent protein of a different color. Confocal microscopy was then used for color-coded imaging of the TME. Color-coded imaging of the TME has enabled us to discover that stromal cells are necessary for metastasis. Patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) tumors were labeled by first passaging them orthotopically through transgenic nude mice expressing either green, red, or cyan fluorescent protein in order to label the stromal cells of the tumor (Yang et al., Cancer Res 64:8651-8656, 2004; Yang et al. J Cell Biochem 106: 279-284, 2009). The colored stromal cells become stably associated with the PDOX tumors through multiple passages in transgenic colored nude mice or non-colored nude mice. The fluorescent protein-expressing stromal cells included cancer-associated fibroblasts and tumor-associated macrophages. Color-coded imaging enabled the visualization of apparent fusion of cancer and stromal cells. Color-coded imaging is a powerful tool visualizing the interaction of cancer and stromal cells during cancer progression and treatment.