Figure 2.

Real-time imaging with ICG-p28 in xenograft mouse models. MDA-MB-231 (a) or IOWA-1T (b) breast cancer cells were injected s.c. into mice (N = 8 in each cell line). Once the tumours (<10 mm) developed, 0.5 mg/kg ICG-p28 was injected i.v. into the mice. Twenty-four hours post-ICG-p28 injection, the mice were imaged with the PDE system during tumour removal. White light photographs (upper) and snapshot NIR PDE images are shown (lower; dorsal view, greyscale at 800 nm). The liver (green arrows) showed relatively high signal intensity from the excretion of ICG. Red arrows: tumours. The representative animal image showed the preferential uptake of ICG-p28 in a small lymph node (LN, yellow arrowhead in b). c, H&E-stained sections of the primary tumour (upper) and a sciatic LN (lower, yellow arrowhead) located at the superficial gluteal muscle, which was confirmed to be tumour positive (magnification 200x, inset 40x).