Mice[2] Female ICR-SCID (6-7 weeks old) mice are randomized into the following treatment groups (n=7): (a) untreated control; (b) only B-DIM (50 mg/kg body weight), intragastric once every day; (c) Erlotinib (50 mg/kg body weight), everyday i.p. for 15 days; and (d) B-DIM and Erlotinib, following schedule as for individual treatments. All mice are killed on day 3 following last dose of treatment, and their body weight is determined. One part of the tissue is rapidly frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −70°C for future use and the other part is fixed in formalin and processed for paraffin block. H&E staining of fixed tissue section is used to confirm the presence of tumor(s) in each pancreas. Rats[3] Six-week-old male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats weighing 180 to 210 g are used. Cisplatin (CP) is freshly prepared in saline at a concentration of 1 mg/mL and then injected intraperitoneally in SD rats (n=28) at a dose of 7 mg/kg on day 0. To investigate the effect of Erlotinib, 28 CP-N rats are divided into two groups. Separate groups (n=14) each of animals are administered with either Erlotinib (20 mg/kg) (CP+E, n=14) or vehicle (CP+V, n=14) daily by oral gavage from day -1 (24 hours prior to the CP injection) to day 3. Vehicle-treated groups receive an equivalent volume of saline. Five male SD rats at the age of 6 weeks are used as a normal control group (NC, n=5). The NC rats are given an equivalent volume of saline daily by oral gavage from day -1 to day 3. At day 4 (96 hours after CP injection), each rat is anesthetized and sacrificed by exsanguination after the cardiac puncture; blood is collected by cardiac puncture and kidneys are collected. Renal tissue is divided; separate portions are snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen or fixed in 2% paraformaldehyde/phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for later use. All surgery is performed under diethyl ether gas anesthesia, and all efforts are made to minimize suffering.

MCE has not independently confirmed the accuracy of these methods. They are for reference only.