Figure 3.

B16F10 melanoma growth increases indentation modulus of axillary but not brachial TDLNs. A) Representative force displacement data of LNs subjected to indentation. B) The indentation modulus of axial but not brachial TDLNs harvested from animals with melanomas 5–12 d post-B16F10 implantation subjected to 10% strain is significantly increased relative to axillary NTDLNs and LNs from naive animals. *P < 0.05 by Mann-Whitney U tests. C) LN indentation moduli are constant up to 20% strain. D) The normalized mean indentation modulus at 10% strain for axillary and brachial LNs from naive (plotted as empty symbols on d 0) and B16F10 melanoma-bearing C57Bl/6 mice. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 by 2-way ANOVA and post hoc Bonferroni’s tests. The mean indentation modulus of axial but not brachial TDLNs changes with time postmelanoma implantation (D) and tumor size (E). The asterisk (*) in (E) indicates that slope of linear regression fit of measured axillary TDLN modulus vs. tumor size from animals with palpable tumors (>0 mm³) between early (1–5 d postallograft) and late (d 7–12 postallograft) is statistically different from zero (P < 0.05). ns, not significant. Data in (B–D) represent mean values of LN moduli from n ≥ 8 individual animals.