Figure 4.

Increasing dietary BCAA intake suppresses tumor growth in the orthotopic xenograft model. (A) Orthotopic xenograft model (normal BCAA Diet, n=9; high BCAA Diet, n=10). (B) The serum BCAA concentration of tumor-bearing mice. (C) Tumors were harvested and tumor weight was measured at the end of the experiment. (D) Tumor volume was measured per week and calculated using the following formula: tumor volume (cubic millimeters (mm³)) = 0.5× (length × width²). (E) Apoptosis marker Cleaved caspase-3 were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (n=9 in each group). (F) Western blot to detect Cleaved caspase-3 and N-cadherin expression of tumor tissues. (G) The percentage of macrophage, type-I macrophage and type-II macrophage in tumor was analyzed by flow cytometry. (H) The percentage of macrophage in spleen. (I) The percentage of NK cell in spleen. (J) The percentage of NK cell expressing Granzyme B in spleen. (K) The percentage of NK cell in tumor. (L) The percentage of granzyme B⁺ NK cells in tumor. Mean ± SD, *p < 0.05, Student’s t-test.