Endoscopic ultrasound-guided local ablation therapy is one of the most important approaches for treating insulinomas that arise from neuroendocrine islet cell tumors located within the pancreas. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of various ablative treatments including anhydrous ethanol, lauromacrogol, polidocanol, and paclitaxel as local ablative agents on subcutaneous insulinoma tumors in mice models using tumor necrosis and drug distribution. For this purpose, mice were modeled for insulinoma tumors by subcutaneous injection of Ins-1 and Min-6 cell lines in 4-6 weeks-old nude female mice. The tumors became visible 1 to 2 weeks after the transplantation of cells, reaching a treatment-appropriate volume of 20-30mm³ within 2 to 3 weeks, as confirmed by the insulinoma-like characteristics observed during histopathological analysis. The results indicated that the insulinoma animal models exhibited an early onset of hypoglycemia and significantly elevated serum insulin levels during starvation tests, compared to the control group further confirmed by expression of chromogranin A (CgA), synaptophysin (Syn), and insulinoma-associated protein 1 (Insm1) in the tumor cells during immunohistochemical staining. Following treatment, necrosis percentages in insulinoma tumors were significantly higher in the paclitaxel (93.2%) and ethanol (86.5%) groups compared to saline, polidocanol, and polyglactin groups. Similarly, tumor drug distribution was tracked using methylene blue, with paclitaxel demonstrating the fastest diffusion, followed by ethanol, polidocanol, and polyglactin. These findings suggest that both paclitaxel and polidocanol have significant potential as local ablative agents in inducing tumor necrosis, with paclitaxel offering the fastest drug dispersion. These results highlight the potential for further optimization of ablation therapies in insulinoma treatment.

To Cite This Article: Yi N, Chen F, Zheng B, Guo W, Yu L, Qin S and Jiang H, 2024. Comparative Efficacy of Pharmacological Agents in the Ablation of Subcutaneous Insulinomas in Nude Mice Models. Pak Vet J, 44(4): 1043-1052. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2024.291