Figure 3.

Reduced Gal-1 gene dose correlated with reduced tumor angiogenesis and splenomegaly. (A) Representative CD31-specific immunohistological staining (green) as a surrogate marker for angiogenesis using frozen tumor tissue of TH-MYCN mice depending on Gal-1 status (+/+: TH-MYCN/Gal-1wt/wt, +/−: TH-MYCN/Gal-1wt/–, –/–: TH-MYCN/Gal-1–/–). Nuclei were counterstained using DAPI. (B) Fluorescence intensity was quantified and background-corrected using ImageJ (A.U. = arbitrary units). (C) Weight of spleens isolated either from tumor-bearing mice or from tumor-free controls. Spleens of tumor-bearing mice were significantly enlarged compared to the spleens of tumor-free mice (Student's t test ***p < 0.001) and spleen weights were even higher in tumors of mice deficient for a functional Gal-1 gene (p < 0.05). Data are shown as mean ± SEM (standard error of the mean).