Figure 3 |.

Slicing method. The in-plane components of solid stress are released by cutting the tumor into thin slices. (a) Representative deformed slices from MMTV-MCa-M3C murine breast tumors (see Table 2 for details). (b) The ultrasound image of the section of the deformed slice. (c) The 3D reconstruction of a deformed slice. (d) Expanded slice. The ratio of the deformed and expanded slices to the original area of the slice provides a measure of the in-plane solid stresses. (e) The original area of the slice was obtained from the blank left in the agarose gel that was sliced with the tissue. (f) The slicing method is applied to breast and pancreas tumors, which show 30 and 35% increases in surface area, respectively, after the stress relaxation by slicing. The expansion ratio is significantly higher in these tumors as compared with that of the normal kidney (negative control), which results in 5% expansion ratio. The data shown are mean ± SEM (n=3 slices); *P < 0.05. Scale bars, 1 mm. f adapted from ref. 9, Springer Nature. All animal procedures in this figure were carried out following the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care of Laboratory Animals and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Massachusetts General Hospital.