Fig. 5.

Assessment of vascular mimicry. a Representative micrographs (magnification ×20) of tubular-like structures generated in matrigel 3D in vitro culture for MDA-MB-231 cells; no such structures are observed in MCF-7 cells. This phenotype is associated with vascular mimicry. b Representative micrographs (magnification ×40) of tumour sections stained with PAS and CD31. c All PAS-positive blood vessels were identified and the CD31 positivity of these blood vessels was then evaluated. The number of CD31+/PAS+ blood vessels was significantly lower in MDA-MB-231 compared to MCF-7 tumours. d Western blot for protein levels of VE-Cadherin in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 xenograft tumours ex vivo provided confirmation of these in vitro findings. GAPDH is shown as a house-keeping protein. b, c n^MCF−7 = 6 and n²³¹ = 6 data expressed as mean ± SEM, *p < 0.05 by unpaired two-tailed t-test. d n^MCF−7 = 8 and n²³¹ = 15