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. 2009 Dec 28;107(3):1124–1129. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0909333107

Fig. 6.

Fig. 6.

Axl is required for human breast carcinoma cells to metastasize from the mammary gland of NOD-SCID mice. (A) Temporal in vivo bioluminescence imaging of mammary fat pad growth of orthotropically injected control and shAxl2-expressing MDA-MB-231-D3H2LN /GFP-Luc cells in NOD/SCID mice (Upper) and Axl-dependent formation of spontaneous thoracic sentinel lymph node metastasis (Lower). (B) Biophotonic quantitation of primary mammary tumor cell number (total photon) and radial infiltration (signal diameter; Upper) and thoracic lymph node metastatic cell number (total photon; Lower) in MDA-MB-231-D3H2LN/GFP-Luc control (solid line) and shAxl2 (dashed line) cell–injected NOD/SCID mice (n = 6 per group). *P < .05; **P < .005; ***P < .0005 compared with control (paired t test). (C) Survey of spontaneous metastasis (at 9 weeks postorthotopic implantation) site monitored by ex vivo bioluminescence detection of MDA-MB-231-D3H2LN/GFP-Luc cells in excised organs shows that tumor cell dissemination is Axl-dependent. (D) Univariate survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier method) between control (vector) and shAxl2 orthographically MDA-MB-231-D3H2LN/GFP-Luc–injected mice demonstrates that overall survival is Axl-dependent (P = .001, log-rank test).