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. 2016 Jan 14;6:19404. doi: 10.1038/srep19404

Figure 3. Endothelial cells infiltrate into pulmonary metastases before the blood perfusion.

Figure 3

(A) The pulmonary metastatic model in mice was established by inoculating red fluorescence-labeled B16 melanoma cells into the tail vein (shown as the cartoon drawn by Zhao C.J.). A representative image of 8d mouse lung with red-fluorescent (red channel) black (Bright-Field) melanoma metastases is shown below. (B) Micrometastases (red) in mouse lungs and vessels with active circulation (green, 70 k MW FITC-dextran, arrowheads) were detected under stereomicroscope. Dotted lines show the location of metastases. (C,D) Quantification of blood-perfusion in micrometastases of different diameters, and the number of blood-perfused vessels in micrometastases of indicated diameter range (80 micrometastases for each group, error bars show SEM). (E) Endothelial cells within blood-perfused (CD31+ Lectin+, arrowheads) or non-perfused (CD31+ Lectin-, arrows) vessels were detected in frozen sections. L, lung tissue; T, tumor. The areas in the white boxes are magnified further in the far right panels of each row. (F) Quantitative analysis of the number of CD31+ endothelial sprouts and Lectin+ CD31+ blood-perfused neovessels (>20 selected areas in each group are counted, error bars show SEM).