4.9. In Vivo Metastasis Model (Intravenous Tail Vein Injection)

MDA-MB-231 cells with luciferase expression were collected and washed with PBS. A 100 μL cell suspension containing 0.5 × 10⁶ cells were injected in the tail vein of 16 immunodeficient female athymic nude mice (4–6 weeks old). Each mouse was imaged using IVIS imaging system (Perkin Elmer, Waltham, Massachusetts) to get the base value after intra-peritoneal injection of 3 mg luciferin (Goldbio. St. Loius, MO, USA) in 100 µL of sterile water. Mice were divided into two groups with 8 mice in each group. After 7 days of injection, the treatment group received 50 mg/kg ATQ by oral gavage daily, whereas control group received vehicle only. The mice were humanely sacrificed at Day 60 as the control mice started showing signs of sickness. The lungs from control and treated mice group were collected, imaged for luminescence and kept for further analysis.