Paul Thomas Winnard Jr1, Santosh Bharti1, Marie-France Penet1, Radharani Marik1, Yelena Mironchik1, Flonne Wildes1, Anirban Maitra2, and Zaver M Bhujwalla1
1Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, 2MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
Therapeutic options for cancer-induced
cachexia are limited and therefore, efforts to identify signs of precachexia in
cancer patients are necessary for early intervention. Here, we generated a
myoblast cell line expressing a dual dTomato:GFP construct that was grafted
onto the muscle of mice bearing human pancreatic cancer xenografts to provide
noninvasive live imaging of events associated with cancer-induced cachexia
(i.e., weight loss). 1H MRS revealed that weight loss in cachectic
animals was associated with a depletion of plasma lipid, cholesterol, and
valine, and decreased skeletal muscle alanine levels, which may provide
informative biomarkers of cachexia.
