Figure 4. Sugar-conjugated dendrimer localization with tumor-associated macrophages and microglia in glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma brain tumor-bearing mice were injected with various dendrimers on day 14 after inoculation. Brains were collected 24 hours after administration, fixed, and stained with lectin to label tumor-associated macrophages/microglia (TAMs, green) and DAPI to label nuclei (blue) for confocal microscopy to visualize dendrimer (red) localization. Unmodified dendrimer (D-OH) localizes to TAMs within the tumor upon systemic administration. Glucose- (D-GLU) and mannose-conjugated dendrimers (D-MAN) maintain the TAMs localization of D-OH. Galactose-conjugated dendrimer (D-GAL) exhibits some TAMs localization, with additional signal observed in the extracellular space.