Figure 6.

Visualization of α-Lactalbumin Gene Expression during in vivo Growth of Human TNBC. Human HCC1937-hlac-Luc cells express firefly luciferase under regulation of the human α-lactalbumin promoter. These stably transfected human TNBC cells were inoculated subcutaneously in the abdominal flanks of 6–8 week old immunodeficient, athymic, female NU/J mice and imaged regularly over a 90 day period for whole body full spectrum wavelength emission induced by injection with luciferin substrate. The stable bioluminescent signals obtained over 90 days in two tumor inoculated mice indicate that human TNBC tumors growing in vivo show stable constitutive α-lactalbumin gene expression over an extended period of time.