Fig. 4
From: Beyond the brain: exploring the impact of animal models of leptomeningeal disease from solid tumors
The intracranial injection model. Cancer cells can be injected into the brain parenchyma of rodents via injection into the frontal lobe, cerebellum (red), pons (green), or putamen (blue) (A). In the parabiosis method, one mouse is given an intraparenchymal injection of cancer cells; then the injected mouse and a non-injected mouse are incised and connected at the olecranon joint, allowing them to share a blood supply. Eventually, both mice may develop LMD (B). Cancer cells injected into the brain parenchyma may spread from the brain parenchyma to the blood, cross the blood-CSF barrier, and enter the CSF before seeding the leptomeninges (C). Alternatively, they may access the leptomeninges via contiguous spread (D). Created in BioRender. Ahmed. (2025) https://BioRender.com/k92d786