Fig. 3. Colon-derived metastatic tumors with missense Trp53 mutations can undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).

Photomicrographs of H&E-stained sections showing the lymph node and lung metastases found in two representative AKP^270/fl mice (a, b top panels). Immunohistochemical stains showing strong nuclear expression of β-catenin, strong membrane expression of E-cadherin and absence of vimentin expression for the moderately differentiated lesions found in one representative mouse (a, bottom three panels). In contrast, the poorly differentiated lesions found in another mouse (b) show strong nuclear expression of β-catenin, loss of E-cadherin expression and strong expression of vimentin, indicating that the metastatic lesions found in this mouse have undergone EMT (b bottom three panels). The representative photomicrographs of H&E-stained sections were shown with low power magnification for orientation; the serial sections were subjected to immunohistochemical staining and the boxed area with stains for β-catenin, E-cadherin and vimentin were shown as high power magnification. Scale bars: 20 μm for all the images.