Mouse Models for Cancer Research

Mice were maintained in a specific-pathogen-free environment according to the University Hospital of Tuebingen guidelines and fed with a standard diet. p19Arf^−/− mice have been generated by C. Sherr. They were obtained in a C57BL/6 background from S. W. Lowe. Wild-type mice (C57BL/6, CB17 and C3H/HeN) and immunodeficient SCID/beige as well as Rag2^−/− knockout mice were purchased from Charles River or the Jackson Laboratory. Alb-cre × Mlkl^fl/fl mice^{22 (link),23 (link)} (C57BL/6 background) were provided by M. Vucur and T. Luedde. For establishment of the lineage-tracing mouse model, Alb-cre mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory and crossed with the ROSA^mT/mG mouse strain that was generated by L. Luo and obtained from J. Zuber. Alb-cre × ROSA^mT/mG mice^{14 (link)} were intercrossed with p19^Arf−/− mice. Knockout mice lacking TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 (C57BL/6 background)^{25 (link)} were provided by T. Buch. TLR2 and TLR4 knockout (C3H/HeN background) mice were obtained from A. Weber. Animal experiments were approved by the local authorities (Regierungspräsidium Tuebingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany). No tumours exceeded the approved tumour size of 0.5 cm.