TITLE OF PROJECT: ALLOGENIC GLIOMA IN IMMUNE COMPETENT DOGS

Principal Investigator: Michael Berens

Subjects: Dogs (female beagles and their unborn puppies)
Funding agency: NIH through NINDS (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

Objectives of research: 1) To implement a procedure for injecting cancer cells (glioma cells) into unborn puppies at a time when their undeveloped immune systems will not reject the cells. 2) To use this procedure for developing an animal model that will develop malignant brain tumors. 3) To study the course of these brain tumors in dogs. 4) To study different courses of therapy on the dogs including irradiation, chemotherapy and surgical excision. 5) To sell the patented procedure for injecting the cancer cells into fetal puppies and "tricking" their immune systems into accepting the cancer cells. 6)To use the dogs and puppies with brain tumors in toxicity testing for cancer treatments.

Method: The fetuses of pregnant female beagles are injected with glioma cells at a point in development when a puppy's immune system will not reject the cells. The cells cause the development of small tumors under the skin of the puppies. At four to six months of age, the tumors are excised from under the skin of the puppies. The puppies are put into a stereotaxic instrument, a hole is bored into the parietal lobe of the brain, the excised tumor is planted in the brain. The implanted tumors develop into large malignant brain tumors in the puppies. The course of the brain tumors and treatments are followed. The treatments include irradiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. At between nine and twelve months of age, the puppies are destroyed and histologies are performed.