Claims
- 1. An immunocompromised transgenic rodent which expresses a first fluorescent protein in essentially all tissues while maintaining its immunocompromised phenotype.
- 2. The rodent of claim 1 which is a mouse.
- 3. The mouse of claim 2 which is a nu/nu mouse.
- 4. The rodent of claim 1 transplanted with heterologous tissue, said tissue modified to express a second fluorescent protein with a different emission spectrum from the first fluorescent protein.
- 5. The rodent of claim 4 wherein the first fluorescent protein is green and the second fluorescent protein is red.
- 6. The rodent of claim 4 wherein said heterologous tissue comprises tumor cells.
- 7. The rodent of claim 6 wherein said tumor cells are transplanted orthotopically into said rodent.
- 8. The rodent of claim 7 wherein said tumor cells are an intact segment of a tumor.
- 9. A method to assay the effects of a drug on tumor-host interactions comprising contacting the rodent of claim 6 with said drug, imaging tumor-host cell interactions by observing emissions of said first and second fluorescent proteins, and comparing the resulting images to a rodent not contacted with said drug.
- 10. The method of claim 9 wherein said observing is by whole-body imaging of the living intact animal.
- 11. A transgenic rodent that expresses a gene encoding a first fluorescent protein in essentially all tissues and which has been transplanted by heterologous tissue that expresses a second fluorescent protein having a different emission spectrum from said first fluorescent protein.
- 12. The rodent of claim 11 that is a mouse.
- 13. The rodent of claim 11 wherein the first fluorescent protein is green and the second fluorescent protein is red.
- 14. The rodent of claim 11 wherein the heterologous tissue comprises syngeneic tumor cells.
- 15. The rodent of claim 14 wherein said tumor cells are transplanted orthotopically into said rodent.
- 16. The rodent of claim 15 wherein said tumor cells are an intact segment of a tumor.
- 17. A method to assay the effects of a drug on tumor-host interactions comprising contacting the rodent of claim 11 with said drug, imaging tumor-host cell interactions by observing emissions of said first and second fluorescent proteins, and comparing the resulting images to a rodent not contacted with said drug.
- 18. The method of claim 17 wherein said observing is by whole-body imaging of the living intact animal.
- 19. A method of propagating cells or tissue that express a first fluorescent protein comprising isolating tissues from the rodent of claim 1 and transplanting them into another animal or embryo.
- 20. The method of claim 19 further comprising serial re-isolation and re-transplantation of the tissues into another animal or embryo.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims benefit of U.S. provisional application 60/445,583 filed 7 Feb. 2003. The contents of this document are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60445583 |
Feb 2003 |
US |