Murine Mesothelioma Cell Lines and Animal Model

Murine mesothelioma cell line AK7 was provided by Brown University, USA. RN5 and ZiP3 cell lines were developed from C57BL/6 background mice after intraperitoneal injection of asbestos fibers [25 (link),26 (link)]. The AE17 cell line was provided by Dr. Steven Albelda, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA, USA), and Dr. Delia Nelson (University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia). All cell lines were grown in RPMI1640 culture media (Life Technologies Inc. Burlington, ON, Canada) supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FBS (Life Technologies Inc.), 2 mmol/L L-glutamine, 100 U/mL penicillin, 100 mg/mL streptomycin and nonessential amino acids. Cells were plated in tissue-culture coated flasks (BD Biosciences Canada, Mississauga, ON, Canada), grown in a 37 °C and 5% CO₂ environment, and passaged when 70% confluent. Eight to 12 weeks old C57BL/6 syngeneic mice and IRF3KO mice were initially purchased from Jackson Laboratories, and acclimatized in the animal colony for 1 week before experimentation. The animals were housed in microisolator cages, 5 per cage, in a 12 h light/dark cycle. Sterile water and rodent food were given ad libitum.