Figure 2.

Leukocyte infiltration and vascularization of the peritoneal lesions. (A) CD31-positive endothelial cells (red) in peritoneal lesions. Nuclei were counter-stained with DAPI (blue). 20X magnification. Vessels per Field of Vision (FOV) (B) mean vascular area (C) and ratio between the vascular area and the number of vessels (D) in peritoneal lesions retrieved at various times after intraperitoneal MC-38 cell injection. CD31⁺ cells were identified by digital image analysis.¹⁵ Results are expressed as mean ± SEM of CD31⁺ cells/FOV, n = 15 animals for each time points for three independent experiment. (E) CD45⁺ leukocytes were revealed by immunohistochemistry in neoplastic lesions collected at days 7, 12 or 21. n = 9 animals for each time point for three independent experiments. (F) Representative dot plot of cells retrieved after enzymatic digestion of neoplastic peritoneal lesions collected at day 21. Physical parameters (Forward Scatter, FSC-A, x-axis vs. Side Scatter, SSC-A, y-axis left) and fluorescence analysis (leukocyte CD45 expression, x-axis vs. GFP MC-38 y-axis, right). (G) Table shows the percentage of cells population that infiltrate the peritoneal tumor lesions. n = 10 animals for two independent experiments.