Figure 3.

MDSCs, MMP activity and the profile of inflammatory factors in timp2^−/− tumors. (A) Representative tumor sections immune stained for CD11b⁺, Gr-1⁺ showing MDSCs (yellow fluorescence) in tumors from WT and timp-2^−/− mice, nuclei counter stained with DAPI. Scale bar= 60μm. (B) Number of MDSCs per high power field (20×) in timp2^−/− tumors versus WT (4 tumors in each group, n=16, mean ± SD) (C) MMP activation shown as red emission of cleaved infrared-tagged peptide substrate by tumor cells (arrows), MMP activity demonstrated by FITC-Gr-1⁺ cells in timp2^−/− tumors (yellow emission) versus WT tumors, nuclei counter-stained with DAPI. Scale bar= 20 μm. (D) Heat map showing differential gene expression higher than two (> 2) of inflammatory factors tumors from timp-2^−/− mice versus WT tumors (n =3 in each groups). (E) Fold change in inflammatory factors from timp2^−/− tumors over WT tumors (significant change in three tumors in each group, *p< 0.005).