Abstract 2531: Novel staining method for visualization, isolation and processing of intracranial brain tumors
Authors: Sonia Jain, Anders Herfindahl-Quint, Caroline D. Doherty, Wenjuan Zhang, Danielle M. Burgenske, Jann N. Sarkaria
Journal: Cancer Research (2025)

Abstract Background and Objective: Glioblastoma (GBM) is most common primary brain tumor with dire need of novel therapeutics. Studies with intracranial tumors are required for robust characterization and development of novel drugs for brain cancer. Tumor harvest and processing is an important aspect to study pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, drug delivery, and tumor evolution. Typically, delineating and dissecting tumor from surrounding brain for varied downstream processes is dependent on the distinct morphology of the tumor and/or expression of fluorescent marker. However, genetic modification of the tumor cells for the expression of fluorescent protein is not always possible, especially for patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumor models. Thus, we have developed a dye-based staining method to confidently visualize tumor in the brain and assessed usability of isolated tumors for drug and DNA analysis. Methodology: Whole brains were harvested from mice with intracranial Mayo GBM PDX tumors and stored at -80oC freezer. Few days prior to staining, brains were transferred to -20oC freezer. Brain was cut into 1 mm thick coronal sections and transferred onto glass slides. Slices were covered with toluidine blue (TB) solution (0.05 to 10 mg/mL) for 45 s. Excess stain solution was removed, and slices were observed under white light. Regions of tumor became more transparent, while normal brain remained opaque. This enabled dissection of tumor from normal brain for downstream analyses. Results: TB concentration (0.05 to 10 mg/mL) was optimized to stain 1 mm thick sections of fresh frozen brain, and the best contrast between tumor to normal brain was observed at 0.1-0.3 mg/mL. TB aided differential visualization of tumors in several PDX models - GBM12, GBM43, GBM39 and GBM108 - suggesting broad applicability. To evaluate the accuracy of TB staining, brain with PDX tumor transduced with pSINeGFP/fLuc2 was observed by both TB staining and eGFP fluorescence. This analysis demonstrated excellent concordance across 6 animals with three distinct PDX models. Genomic DNA was isolated from tumor dissected under TB guidance and analyzed by PCR for primers specific for murine vs human PTGER2. 50-70% of the DNA in tumor samples was detected to be of human origin while normal brain tissue had 90-95% of the mouse DNA highlighting the specificity of TB stain for tumor detection. Tumors from drug treated GBM108 PDX were isolated under TB guidance and comparable drug levels were detected by LC-MS/MS as analyzed in GFP-assisted tumor samples. Conclusion: Staining fresh frozen thick brain sections with toluidine blue enables visualization of tumor from normal brain regions that is compatible with varied downstream processes. Development of such staining assays can help faster and easier tumor processing and is not dependent on genetic modification of tumor cells prior to experimentation. Citation Format: Sonia Jain, Anders Herfindahl-Quint, Caroline D. Doherty, Wenjuan Zhang, Danielle M. Burgenske, Jann N. Sarkaria. Novel staining method for visualization, isolation and processing of intracranial brain tumors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_1):Abstract nr 2531.