Figure 11. BV6 enhances radiation-mediated tumor growth suppression in vivo.

A. HT1080 cells (2.5×10⁶/mouse) were transplanted to athymic nude mice. Ten days after tumor injection, the established xenograft tumors were either untreated or irradiated using an external beam of radiation at a dose of 8 Gy (n=4 each treatment group). The mice were then either untreated or injected with BV6 i.v. (5 mg/kg body weight) every two days for four treatments. Tumors were dissected and presented at the left panel. The tumor xenograft growth kinetics are presented in the right panel. B. Xenograft tumor tissues, as shown in A, were dissected from mice and analyzed by immunohistochemical staining for in situ TUNEL. The brown color indicates apoptotic cell death. a: tumor from control mice, b: tumor from BV6-treated mice, c:tumor from radiated mice, and d: tumor from combined BV6 and radiation-treated mice. C. Xenograft tumor tissues, as shown in A, were dissected from mice and analyzed by immunohistochemical staining for Ki67 protein levels. The brown color indicates proliferating Ki67-positive tumor cells. a: tumor from control mice, b: tumor from BV6-treated mice, c:tumor from radiated mice, and d: tumor from combined BV6 and radiation-treated mice. D. Mouse sarcoma CMS4-met cells (2.5×10⁵/mouse) were transplanted to BALB/c mice. Ten days after tumor injection, the established tumors were either untreated or irradiated using an external beam of radiation at a dose of 8 Gy (n=4 each treatment group). The mice were then either untreated or injected with BV6 (5 mg/kg body weight) every two days for four treatments. The tumor growth was measured over time. Shown are the tumor growth kinetics. E. CMS4-met cells were injected to BALB/c mice and treated as in A except the radiation dose was increased to 20Gy. Shown are the tumor growth kinetics.