Fig. 5.

Histological evaluation of the anticancer effect of the nChain particle on micrometastasis in the liver. (a) Fluorescence imaging of an entire histological section of a lobe of liver 30 min after systemic administration of nChain at 0.5 mg DOX/kg b.w. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (5x magnification). Images of entire histological sections of the organ were obtained using the automated tiling function of the microscope. At 30 min post-injection, the location of metastatic cancer cells is shown with respect to the location of endothelial cells (b), nChain particles and DOX (c) in the same histological section (10x magnification; insets: 20x magnification). (d) At 120 min post-injection, fluorescence imaging of an entire histological section shows the widespread distribution of DOX molecules after a 60-min application of RF employed at 45 min post-injection (5x magnification). At 120 min post-injection, higher magnification imaging shows the distribution of DOX molecules with (e) or without RF (f) with respect to the location of cancer cells and nChain particles (10x magnification; inset: 20x magnification). At 48 h post-injection, fluorescence imaging of entire histological sections shows the distribution of DOX molecules with respect to cancer cells for the nChain/RF (g), nChain (h) and Lip/RF treatment (i). Insets show apoptotic cells in a small portion of the same images. Apoptotic cell nuclei were stained with TUNEL.