Figure 2.

Magnetic bead-based isolation using an antibody directed against CD44v6 efficiently discriminated tumor cells from hematopoietic cells. (A) Schematic flowchart summarizing the strategy used to purify CTCs from blood using magnetic beads. Detailed protocol is described in the Materials and Methods section. APC stands for “Allophycocyanin”. (B) Photos of live cultured CTCs from four CRC patient blood samples following labelling with antibodies directed against CD44v6 and purification with magnetic beads. Blue arrowheads show single cells, and green arrow heads show spheres initiated from proliferative single cells. Scale bars represent 50 µm. (C) Detection of the BRAF V600E mutation in the newly established CTC line by pyrosequencing is described in the Supplementary file S1. In the mutated samples, “A” at position 600 replaces “T”. (D) Hematoxylin/eosin staining on a subcutaneous tumor obtained after the novel CTC line was injected in the flank of a nude mouse.