Distribution of Metastases in the Organs of Mice after Orthotopic Injection of CT26 Colorectal Cancer Cells

One reason for the high mortality rate from bowel cancer is the formation of metastases, and effective animal models of cancer are needed to analyze the mechanism of their development. To create such models of metastasis, we carried out orthotopic inoculation of mice with CT26 mouse colorectal cancer cells containing the luciferase gene into the submucosal region of the caecum of animals. Mice were sacrificed 30 days after inoculation, and the presence of metastases in organs was determined based on the analysis of the amount of messenger RNA of the luciferase gene using real-time polymerase chain reaction. It has been established that after orthotopic injection of CT26 colorectal cancer cells in experimental animals, metastases are found not only in the liver, but also in the lungs and spleen. Such data were obtained for the first time and allow us to consider the protocol that we used for modeling the process of colorectal cancer metastasis in mice.