Fig. 2. Histopathological biomarker assessment and correlation with nanomedicine tumour targeting.

a–f, Immunofluorescence stainings for all blood vessels (CD31) (a), actively perfused vessels (lectin) (b), pericyte-supported vessels (αSMA) (c), angiogenic vessels (VEGFR2) (d), lymphatic vessels (LYVE-1) (e) and TAM (F4/80) (f) in A431, MLS and CT26 tumours. Scale bar, 50 µm. g–l, Quantification of the immunofluorescence images for CD31⁺ vessels (g), lectin⁺ vessels (h), αSMA⁺ vessels (i), VEGFR2⁺ vessels (j), LYVE-1⁺ vessels (k) and F4/80 (l) (no., number). The black bars indicate means. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (Student’s t-test). Note that the analysis in g–i is based on 10× magnification images, while the analysis in j–l is based on 20× magnification. m–r, Correlation of PHPMA tumour accumulation at 72 h post injection (in percent of the injected dose (100% represents 2 nmol of dye) normalized to 250 mm³ tumour volume) with the respective tumour-tissue biomarker features (CD31⁺ vessels (m), lectin⁺ vessels (n), αSMA⁺ vessels (o), VEGFR2⁺ vessels (p), LYVE-1⁺ vessels (q) and F4/80 (r)). The trendlines are shown per tumour model (colour-coded) and for all tumours together (black). The R² values indicate the coefficient of determination and reflect the goodness of fit. Each data point represents one animal.