(a) Gating strategy for lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) and blood endothelial cells (BECs). (b) Concatenated images of LECs and BECs from meninges and lymph node depicting AKT-phosphorylation intensity. Experiment was repeated independently with similar results. (c) Quantification of AKT(pS473) positive population and MFI within LECs and BECs in the meninges and dCLNs (meninges; WT, n = 5; AAV-VEGF-C, tumor + Luc-mRNA, tumor + VEGF-C-mRNA, n = 8) (lymph nodes; WT, n = 5; AAV-VEGF-C, n = 8; tumor + Luc-mRNA, n = 7; tumor + VEGF-C-mRNA, n = 8). (d) Fluorescent microscope images of dCLN after VEGF-C-mRNA treatment in tumor bearing mice (CD31, red; LYVE1, green; DAPI, blue). (e) Fluorescent microscope images of meninges after VEGF-C-mRNA treatment in tumor bearing mice (CD31, red; LYVE1, green; DAPI, blue). Experiment was repeated independently with similar results. f-h Mice were treated with AAV-VEGF-C or VEGF-C-mRNA at different timepoints relative to GL261-Luc tumor inoculation (d0). Tumor growth kinetics (g-h) and survival (f) was monitored (n = 5 for all groups). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P <0.001; ****P<0.0001 (two-sided Log-rank Mantel-Cox test). Data are mean ± S.D. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P <0.001; ****P<0.0001 (two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test)