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. 2015 Jun;185(6):1724–1739. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2015.02.010

Figure 6.

Figure 6

Intrahepatic tumor xenografts: morphological and phenotypic features. Injection of spheroids (approximately 10,000 cells) formed by cells immunoselected for a determined cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) marker into the livers of cirrhotic SCID mice (carbon tetrachloride–induced) leads, after 4 weeks, to evident liver cancers. A: Tumor masses observed 4 weeks after intrahepatic injection of CD90+ spheroids from primary cultures of mucin-IHCCA. B: Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E): The liver is occupied by several tumor masses (dotted line); vascular invasion (arrows). C: H&E: Tumor masses were composed of strands of polygonal cells with giant nuclei and prominent nucleoli. D: Immunohistochemistry (IHC): At the center of tumor masses, α-SMA–positive tumor cells are present (arrows). E–H: At the periphery of the tumor masses, Periodic-acid Schiff (PAS)-positive cells (F, arrows), cords of HepPar-1–positive cells (G, arrows), and K19 ductular-like structures (H, arrows) are present, reproducing a moderately differentiated carcinoma. E = PAS staining: Area in the box is magnified in F; F = PAS staining: G = IHC for HepPar-1. H = IHC for CK19. I and J: Immunocompetent cirrhotic BALBc mice, under pharmacological immunosuppression, injected with CD133+ spheroids prepared from mucin-IHCCA primary cultures. Four weeks after intrahepatic injection, a tumor almost totally composed of PAS+ duct-like structures (arrows) is observed. I = H&E: J = PAS staining. n = 4 (I and J, mucin-IHCCA primary cultures). Original magnification: ×10 (B and E); ×20 (C, D, H, and I); ×40 (F, G, and J).