精彩导读：A first group of mice expressing a fluorescence gene served as donors of the bone marrow cells. A second group of mice, whose marrow had been destroyed by radiation, were injected with the donated fluorescent bone marrow. The transplanted bone marrow cells were allowed to proliferate for 8 weeks. Then, colon cancer cells were injected into the same mice and tumors formed over the next 3 weeks.

　　Bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) participate in the growth and spread of tumors of the breast, brain, lung, and stomach. To examine the role of BMDCs, researchers developed a mouse model that could be used to track the migration of these cells while tumors formed and expanded. Their results, published in the November issue of The American Journal of Pathology, strongly suggest that more effective cancer treatments may be developed by exploiting the mechanism by which bone marrow cells migrate to tumors and retard their proliferation(扩散) . "Our results provide an excellent in vivo(在活体内) experimental model where the temporal dynamics of tumor-infiltrating BMDCs may be monitored in an immunocompetent(免疫活性的) host and novel therapies targeting BMDCs for the inhibition of tumor progression may be investigated," commented lead investigator Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, Professor and Chief, Hematology/Oncology Division at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Associate Director for Translational Research at the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute. "In the future, it may be possible to use specific identified tumor-infiltrating BMDCs to deliver therapeutic cargo."

　　A first group of mice expressing a fluorescence gene served as donors of the bone marrow cells. A second group of mice, whose marrow had been destroyed by radiation, were injected with the donated fluorescent bone marrow. The transplanted bone marrow cells were allowed to proliferate for 8 weeks. Then, colon cancer cells were injected into the same mice and tumors formed over the next 3 week