document: Animal procedures. For the animal experiments, luciferase expression plasmid-transfected U87MG cell-implanted pathogen-free male NU/NU mice (5–7 weeks old, 20–25 g, from BioLASCO, Taiwan) were employed in this study. U87MG cells were cultured at 37°C with 5% CO2 in MEM with 10% foetal bovine serum and 1% penicillin/streptomycin (Invitrogen). Mice were anaesthetized with 2% isoflurane gas and immobilized on a stereotactic frame to implant U87MG cells. A sagittal incision in the skin overlying the