Figure 5.

Block the regulation of hypoxia microenvironment to gastric cancer stem/progenitor cell alleviated gastric cancer peritoneal dissemination (GCPD) in a tumor xenograft model. (A): Mice were treated with i.p. injections of clodronate liposomes at 25 mg/kg every 3 days. After 9 days (three injections), mice were sacrificed by cervical dislocation. The greater omentum was excised, fixed, and sectioned. CD68 expression was analyzed by immunofluorescence staining to mark peritoneal milky spot (PMS) macrophage (major axis (L) and minor axis (S) of PMS were measured, the area of milky spots was calculated by the formula: area (mm²) = π × L × S, scale bar was 100 µM in length, *, p < .05). (B): 1 × 10⁴ GC1_sps or GC1HIF-1α^Δ_sps were i.p. injected into normal (np) or PMS macrophage-depleted (dp) mice. Ten mice were included in each of the four groups. Mice were sacrificed by cervical dislocation 30 days after inoculation. GCPD status was then estimated by measuring the volume of ascites and counting the number of metastatic nodules in the peritoneum (red arrows showed metastatic nodules). Abbreviation: HIF-1α, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α.