Fig 1. Vessel co-option by D4M3A murine melanoma cells in the mouse brain and in ex vivo brain slice cultures.

(A) mCherry⁺ D4M3A cells were stereotaxically injected into the striatum of Cdh5-Cre^ERT2;ZSGreen^{loxp/stop/loxp} mice. Representative confocal image from a 100 μm-thick mouse brain slice showing mCherry⁺ D4M3A cells (red) co-opting ZSGreen⁺ brain vasculature (green) in the mouse cerebral cortex (arrowheads). (B) mCherry⁺ D4M3A cells were pipetted onto the surface of 250 μm-thick live brain slices from Cdh5-Cre^ERT2;ZSGreen^{loxp/stop/loxp} mice and time-lapse images were taken 24 hours later to monitor the interaction between the cancer cells and blood vessels. Representative images show D4M3A cells (red) spreading along brain capillaries (green) and the direction in which they have travelled over time.