Skip to main content
. 2022 Apr 15;72(2):345–359. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-325564

Figure 7.

Figure 7

Loxl2 affects collagen fibre orientation and premetastatic niche formation. (A) Mean percent (%) CD11b+, F4/80+ or CD11b+/F4/80+ cells ±SEM in liver homogenates from (top) wild type (+/+) KPC and Het KPC (KPC; Loxl2 +/-) mice (blue) and KO KPC (KPC; Loxl2 -/-) mice (red) or (bottom) wild type (+/+) KPC mice (blue) and KPCL2KI (KPC; R26L2+/KI and KPC; R26L2KI/KI) mice (green) determined at 14–16 weeks post birth. (*P<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001; ns, not significant; two-sided t-test with Mann-Whitney U test). (B) Representative picrosirius red-stained images of pancreata. Overlay, representative fibre directionality analysis plots depicting the frequency of fibres in a specific orientation. (C) Mean maximum relative (max rel.) peak frequency ±SEM of directionality analysis plots for picrosirius red-stained images of pancreata shown in (B). (n=5–6 mice per genotype with 4–6 representative images analysed per mouse, *p<0.05, ****p<0.0001, two-sided t-test with Mann-Whitney U test). (D) Experimental set-up for clodronate (Clod) in vivo studies. (E) Mean fold-change in Loxl2 (top) or Osm (bottom) relative mRNA levels ±SEM in pancreata from control liposome-treated vs clodronate liposome-treated KPC wt mice. Values were normalised to Hprt levels and control liposome-treated samples were set as 1.0. (n=8 mice per group, ****p<0.0001, two-sided t-test with Mann-Whitney U test). (F) Representative picrosirius red-stained images of pancreata and overlaid fibre directionality analysis plots from control (Ctl)- and clodronate-treated KPC wt mice. (G) Mean maximum relative (max rel.) peak frequency ±SEM of directionality analysis plots for picrosirius red-stained images of pancreata shown in (F). (n=5 mice per group with three representative images analysed per mouse, ***p<0.001, two-sided t-test with Mann-Whitney U test). (H) Number of tumours and metastases detected in indicated groups. Het, heterozygous; Hprt, hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase 1; KI, knock-in; KO, knockout; Loxl2, lysyl oxidase-like protein 2; mRNA, messenger RNA; Osm, oncostatin M; PDAC, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; wt, wild type.