Fig. 6.

Peritoneal tumor imaging with ZHS-QDs. Mice bearing peritoneal tumors (PTs) created with MKN45P-luc luciferase-positive human gastric cancer cells received an intraperitoneal co-injection of iRGD or PBS with ZHS-QDs. Intraperitoneal etchant (1x Ag-TS) was given 90 min later. n = 3 per group. Some mice carried asubcutaneous MKN45P-luc tumor (SCT) in addition to the PTs. a, d Whole body in vivo and post-necropsy in situ imaging of the tumor mice, and ex vivo imaging of resected tissues. Lum, luminescence; 800 nm, NIR. The white dotted line in d marks a SCT in a mouse that received iRGD, ZHS-QDs, and Ag-TS. b, e Fluorescent signal per unit area in collected tissues b and in SCT vs. PT in the iRGD group e. c Confocal micrographs of PTs. Blue, DAPI; red, CD31 or ER-TR7; green, ZHS-QDs; scale bars, 50 μm. The white dotted lines indicate PT surface. B, brain; H, heart; Li, liver; S, spleen; Lu, lung; K, kidney. Statistics, two-way analysis of variance b or Student’s t-test e; error bars, SEM; ns, not significant; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001