Fig. 3. Tranilast micelles enhance efficacy of epirubicin micelles and decrease lung metastasis.

a Study treatment protocol. Animals received daily intravenous injections of Tranilast/m 2 mg/kg for 6 days and subsequently two doses of EPI/m 6 mg/kg (on days 18 and 22 in E0771 tumors and on days 17 and 21 in 4T1 tumors). Orthotopic E0771 (b) and 4T1 (c) breast cancer primary tumor growth in mice treated with Tranilast/m, EPI/m or combination of the two. d Representative ultrasound elastography heat maps of E0771 tumors following different treatments, with blue indicating compliant tissue and red indicating stiff tissue. The dashed black line denotes the tumor margin (n = 4–5 mice, N = 2 image fields per mouse). e Elastic modulus values in E0771 tumors during treatment using ultrasound elastography. f Representative images of lungs of E0771 tumor bearing mice following fixation in Bouin’s solution and Hematoxylin and Eosin staining. Surface lung metastases are marked with black arrows. g Quantification of macroscopic E0771 spontaneous lung metastasis formation upon completion of the study. Data are presented as mean ± SE. Statistical analyses were performed by comparing means between two independent groups using the unpaired parametric Welch t test. (a) was created with BioRender.com.