A Cost-Effective and Efficient Chick Ex-Ovo CAM Assay Protocol to Assess Angiogenesis

The chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) is an extra-embryonic membrane, comprised of a high density of blood and lymphatic vessels. CAM has a dense capillary network and is commonly used to study in vivo angiogenesis and anti-angiogenesis in response to potential biomolecules and drugs. Most of the earlier reported CAM assays described the in-ovo method—where the viability of the embryo is higher, but accessibility to the CAM is limited. Ex-ovo CAM methods were previously described that employed shell-less cultures of chick embryos, but the low viability of embryos reduced the overall robustness of the angiogenesis assays. We described a method (named as cup-CAM method) which is more economical, has better accessibility and has significantly improved the viability of the embryo till advanced developmental stages. We could perform this simple yet useful experimentation with the common tools available in the laboratory. We successfully used the cup-CAM method for showing the paracrine effects of conditioned media from tumor cells, on the angiogenesis. This method can be used to assay the angiogenic potential of a drug or protein and to observe the embryonic development of the chick embryo and other related scientific applications.