Figure 3.

T22-DITOX-H6 repeated administration reduces the occurrence of regional dissemination to the cervical lymph nodes in a HNSCC-disseminated mouse model. (A) Bioluminescence intensity (BLI) emitted by 74B-Luci cancer cells during the experiment in the buffer- and T22-DITOX-H6-treated animals. (B) Semi-quantification of the emitted BLI in the cervical lymph nodes (LNs) throughout the experiment in the control and treated groups. (C) Area under the curve (AUC) of the registered BLI emitted by cervical lymph nodes (LN) in the time course of the experiment for both control and nanotoxin-treated animals. (D) Percentage of the animals presenting cervical-lymph-node (LN) infiltration at the endpoint of the experiment in the buffer- and T22-DITOX-H6-treated groups. (E) Human vimentin IHC analysis of cervical lymph node samples from control and treated animals at the endpoint of the experiment (day 30 post-tumor-cell inoculation). Scale bars = 500 µm and 200 µm. (F) Representative images of the cervical lymph nodes (LN) from a buffer-treated animal (up) and a nanotoxin-treated animal (down) at euthanasia. Animals from the buffer-treated group presented macroscopic infiltrated lymph nodes. (G) Quantification of the area of the cervical lymph nodes observed in the human-vimentin IHC samples collected from buffer- and T22-DITOX-H6 groups. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001; n = 7 per group (total animal number 14). Statistical analysis was performed by Scheirer–Ray–Hare test, Mann–Whitney test, and Fisher’s test. Error bars indicate SEM.