Figure 1:

Experimental flowchart. Chemically induced autochthonous hepatocellular carcinomas were generated in Wistar rats, and tumor development was monitored using T2-weighted MRI. Tumors reaching 0.5–1 cm in maximum transverse diameter were treated with transarterial embolization (TAE). At selected post-TAE time points, samples were collected for analysis with either flow cytometry or immunohistochemistry (IHC)/in situ hybridization (ISH). Flow cytometry was performed on three different groups: liver samples from healthy diethylnitrosamine (DEN)–naive rats treated with sham embolization (naive), sham-treated tumors (SHAM), and embolized tumors (TAE group). Histologic examination (IHC, ISH, hematoxylin and eosin [H&E] staining) was performed on three different groups: tumors from rats that did not undergo embolization (non-embo CTRL), embolized tumors (target or TAE), and nonembolized tumors from rats that had a different target tumor embolized (nontarget). Hydrogel = hydrogel embolics, TAGM = tris-acryl gelatin microspheres.