Mouse models of colon cancer and xenograft implantation of trkc-shRNA cells

Female BALB/c Nu/Nu mice (7 weeks old, n = 7), and C57BL/6 mice (7 weeks old, n = 5) were handled in compliance with protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of Gachon University (Approval No. LCDI-2013-0029). For the colitis-associated colon cancer model, we followed a published protocol [20, 54]. The C57BL/6 mice were injected a single intraperitoneal injection with 10 mg/kg of azoxymethane (AOM; Sigma) or PBS. 7 days later, mice received 2% DSS or drinking water for 5 days. For animal studies, we performed as previously described [5]. For tumorigenicity studies, 1 × 10⁵ cells suspended in 50μl PBS/Matrigel (BD Biosciences) were injected subcutaneously into the left and right hind flank regions under anesthesia. Mice were euthanized at 5 weeks, and primary tumors were excised for analysis. For tail-vein injection, 1 × 10⁵ cells suspended in 50μl PBS were injected into the tail vein of 7-week-old Female BALB/c Nu/Nu mice.