Cancer Imaging by Intravital Microscopy: The Dorsal Window Chamber Model

Intravital microscopy allows a direct visualization of cells' behavior in their environment in a living organism with all its complexity. With appropriated models, longitudinal studies of structural and functional changes can be followed in the same animal on long period. In the field of cancer, the dorsal window chamber model is the model of choice for tumor events such as cells migration, vessels growth, and their permeability or interactions between cells and vessels. Coupled with wide-field, confocal, or multiphoton fluorescence microscopes, high spatial and temporal resolutions of the cellular events can be analyzed in vivo.