Fig. 3. RGS5^highpericytes survive and proliferate within TME.

A Dot plots representing selection steps of sorting of pericyte population from murine normal and metastatic lungs, established in C57BL/6 mice by inoculation of B16-F10 melanoma and LLC via tail vein. Representative contour plots show RGS5⁺AnnV⁺ population in metastatic lungs versus non-metastatic lungs as checked by flow cytometry in CD31^-CD45^-NG2⁺PDGFRβ⁺ gated population. Bar diagrams represent mean± SD (n = 6) of RGS5⁺AnnV⁺ cells in murine normal and metastatic lungs. **p < 0.01. B Dot plots representing selection steps of sorting pericyte population from murine kidney, B16-F10 melanoma and LLC. C Representative dot plot show RGS5⁺pericyte population in normal murine kidney, B16-F10 melanoma and LLC tumors. Histograms on right side representing AnnV⁺ population in RGS5⁺ pericytes gated on CD31^-CD45^-NG2⁺PDGFRβ⁺sorted pericytes from different murine tissue/tumor microenvironment by the procedure described in (B). D Bars indicating mean± SD of percent RGS5^low, RGS5^high, and RGS5⁺AnnV⁺ population in pericytes sorted by the procedure described in (B) from three individual experiments. Statistical significance is attained by two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. ***p < 0.001,****p < 0.0001. E Representative contour plots show RGS5⁺AnnV⁺ population upon exposing RGS5^highpericytes (generated as in Fig. 1A) to tumor-lysate. F Bars represent mean± SD of percent of RGS5⁺AnnV⁺ pericyte population on exposing RGS5^highpericytes as generated in Fig. 1A–C to B16-F10 tumor-lysate (n = 6) obtained by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s comparison test. ****p < 0.0001 and ns is not significant. G, H Representative histograms and bars show expression and mean± SD (n = 6) of percent of survivin and Ki-67 as analyzed by flow cytometry in RGS5^highpericytes sorted from in vivo B16-F10 melanoma versus murine kidney (as in Fig, 3B) and in vitro RGS5^highpericytes exposed to tumor-lysate versus RGS5^highpericytes (generated as in Fig. 1A). ****p < 0.0001 as significant.