Background: Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is the most common carcinoma of the biliary system. Among its research models, orthotopic xenograft models, important research tools, have been rarely reported in the literature however.
Aim: To explore establishment of an orthotopic xenograft model and to evaluate the advantage and disadvantage as compared with other models.
Materials and methods: Subcutaneous xenograft and orthotopic xenograft models of gallbladder carcinoma in nude mice were established and compared with human gallbladder carcinomas.
Results: For the orthotopic xenograft model and clinical gallbladder carcinomas, the lymph node metastatic rates were 69.2% and 53.3% (p>0.05); ascites generation rates, 38.5% and 11.7%(p<0.05); liver invasive rates, 100% and 61.7%(p<0.05); and lymphatic vessel densities (LVD), 10.4 ± 3.02 and 8.77 ± 2.92 (p>0.05), respectively. In the subcutaneous xenograft model, no evidence of ascites generation, lymph node metastasis and liver metastasis were found, and its LVD was lower (4.56 ± 1.53, p<0.05).
Conclusions: Compared with the subcutaneous xenograft model, the orthotopic xenograft model better simulates clinical gallbladder carcinoma in terms of metastasis and invasion, which may be attributed to the difference in microenvironment and LVD.