4.7. Animal Xenografts Tumor Model and Anti-Tumor Effect In Vivo

All animal studies were performed under approval from the Seoul National University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC No. 18-0231, 1 November 2018). BALB/c nude mice (5-week-old, male) were purchased from Orient Bio Inc. (Seongnam, Korea). U87MG or U87MG-shSPARC cells (2 × 10⁶ cells/site) were injected subcutaneously into the right lower flanks. When tumor volume approached 50 mm³, mice were randomly divided into 3 groups (U87MG: n = 12 for PBS group, n = 9 for CDDP group and n = 11 for HSA–CDDP group. U87MG-shSPARC: n = 7 for PBS group, n = 6 for CDDP group and n = 9 for HSA–CDDP group). Mice were IV administrated (7 times, every other day) with PBS, CDDP, or HSA–CDDP. The drug dose of CDDP was 3 mg/kg and the dose for HSA–CDDP was the equivalent amount of CDDP (3 mg/kg CDDP from HSA–CDDP). The tumor size and body weight of each mouse were recorded every other day. Tumor volume was calculated using the equation V = 0.5 × L × W², where L represents tumor length and W represents tumor width. To evaluate the survival rate of CDDP and HSA–CDDP in the tumor model, mice were monitored and euthanized following the humane endpoints guideline (specifically, rapid weight loss of 15–20% within a few days or tumor volume is larger than 2000 mm³).