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. 2016 Sep 7;11(9):e0162540. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162540

Fig 3. B16-luc, LLC1-luc, TRAMP-C2-luc and microsphere dissemination (7 and 16 μm diameter) in soft tissues.

Fig 3

(A) Individual lung dissemination of tumor cells varied between ~30–40%. In contrast, very few microbeads (independent of their size) were found in the lung. All cell types disseminated significantly higher to the lung compared to microbeads (B16-luc vs. 7 μm beads: p < 0.0001, B16-luc vs. 16 μm beads: p < 0.0001, LLC1-luc vs. 7 μm beads: p = 0.0025, LLC1-luc vs. 16 μm beads: p = 0.0039, TRAMP-C2-luc vs. 7 μm beads: p = 0.0024, TRAMP-C2-luc vs. 16 μm beads: p = 0.0037). (B) Tumor cell and microbeads dissemination to the brain was relatively low (~5%). LLC1-luc cells disseminated significantly higher to the brain compared to B16-luc. Cell sized (16 μm) microbeads also disseminated significantly higher to the brain compared to B16-luc and even TRAMP-C2-luc (B16-luc vs. LLC1-luc: p = 0.0288, B16-luc vs. 7 μm beads: p = 0.0386, B16-luc vs. 16 μm beads: p = 0.0012, TRAMP-C2-luc vs. 16 μm beads: p = 0.0019). (C) The kidneys’ dissemination fraction ranged from ~10 to 25%. Small (7 μm) microbeads disseminated significantly higher to the kidneys compared to B16-luc and LLC1-luc tumor cells (LLC1-luc vs. 7μm beads: p = 0.0327). (D) Microbeads dissemination was high in the liver (~20%), whereas cell dissemination varied by cell type. LLC1-luc cells disseminated significantly stronger to the liver compared to the other cells. Comparably high amounts of microbeads were found in the liver, 7 μm beads disseminated significantly higher to the liver compared to B16-luc and TRAMP-C2, 16 μm beads showed significantly higher dissemination compared to TRAMP-C2 (B16-luc vs. LLC1-luc: p = 0.0029, B16-luc vs. 7μm beads: p = 0.0116, B16-luc vs. 16μm beads: p = 0.0338, LLC1-luc vs. TRAMP-C2-luc: p < 0.0001, TRAMP-C2-luc vs. 7μm beads: p = 0.0003, TRAMP-C2-luc vs. 16μm beads: p = 0.0003). (E) The skin showed high dissemination of microbeads and TRAMP-C2-luc cells, with a significant effect compared to B16-luc cells (B16-luc vs. TRAMP-C2-luc: p = 0.0366, B16-luc vs. 7μm beads: p = 0.0082, B16-luc vs. 16μm beads: p = 0.0084). Mean ± SD, (B16-luc n = 4, LLC1-luc n = 5, TRAMP-C2-luc n = 5, 7 μm beads n = 5, 16 μm beads n = 5) for all experiments shown, one way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc analysis.