Figure 2.

Twist and vimentin expression in CTCs of early and metastatic breast cancer patients. (A) Graph I: Quantification of 25 early and 25 metastatic breast cancer patients in whom double-positive cells of each examined molecule were harvested. Graph II: Quantification of double-positive CTCs/total CTCs for each examined molecule. Graph III: Quantification of median expression per patient for each examined molecule. (B) Representative ARIOL system images of CTCs in PBMC cytospin. Row I: Cytospin double-stained with monoclonal pan-CK A45-B/B3 (green)/polyclonal Twist anti-rabbit (red) antibodies and DAPI nuclear staining. Original magnification, x400. Row II: Cytospin double-stained with monoclonal A45-B/B3 (green)/polyclonal vimentin anti-rabbit (red) antibodies and DAPI nuclear staining. Original magnification, x400. ARIOL system = automated image analysis system; CK = cytokeratin; CTCs = circulating tumour cells; PBMCs = peripheral blood mononuclear cells; DAPI = 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole.