Skip to main content
. 2010 Jun;176(6):2958–2971. doi: 10.2353/ajpath.2010.090838

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Microglial cell responses to invading cancer cells are heterogeneous. Microglial activation in response to cancer cell invasion varies at early as well as late stages, as detected by immunofluorescence analysis. A–G: MDA-MB-435 cells in immunosuppressed mice; diverse microglial responses (green) to incoming cancer cells (red) on day seven (A). Responses include absence of microglial cells (B), presence of hypertrophic stellate activated (D), or amoeboid reactive microglial cells (F). Similarly, on day 50, some macrometastases show no microglial involvement (C) or contain stellate (E) or amoeboid microglia (G). Scale bars: 100 μm (A); 50 μm (B–G). H–K: 4T1 cells in immunocompetent mice; H: distribution of activated microglia (red) in the mouse brain seven days after carotid artery injection of cancer cells (left panel) or medium alone (right panel). White arrowheads mark the GFP-labeled cancer cells (green). Diverse microglial responses to cancer cells include absence of microglial cells (I), presence of hypertrophic stellate (J), or reactive amoeboid microglial cells (K). Scale bar: 50 μm.