Figure 2.

Effects of LH-R over-expression and LH treatment in the orthotopic xenograft model of endometrial cancer (EC). (A,A′) Macroscopic view of representative examples of macrometastes detected at the para-aortic lymph nodes and at diaphragm respectively. (B) Histological characterization of the orthotopic EC model. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) sections showing orthotopic grafts of Hec1A and Hec1A-LH-R cell lines in direct contact and interaction with the uterus of the mice at the area of implantation and the myometrial infiltration by tumor cells (20×). (C) Immunohistochemistry staining of cancer cells in the myometrial wall. Staining was performed with anti-MHC class I antibodies (H-300), 1: 100, Santa Cruz (20× magnification). The insert in (C) is a magnification of the area indicated by the square. Histograms in (D) represent the mean weight of the uteri (±SEM) of mice implanted with Hec1A-LH-R cells or Hec1A and treated or not with LH. Statistical analysis was performed with Student’s t test. (E) Histological analysis showed para-aortic lymph node tumor cells invasion (see arrows) (10× magnification). (F) Magnification (40×) of the tumor invasion area (arrows). (G) Morphometric analysis of invasion of lymph nodes in between all the different treatments was performed and histograms reported represent the mean of the area of invasion/microscopic field (±SEM) of lymph nodes in between all the different treatments.