Figure 3

Morphological features and PR immunostaining in tumors treated with asPR or scPR for 5 days. Left column: control mice treated with saline; middle column: mice treated with scPR; right column: mice treated with asPR. (a–c) Hematoxylin and eosin (100×); (d-f) Hematoxylin and eosin (400×); (g–i) 5-BrdU immunocytochemistry; (j–l) TUNEL (100×); (m-o) PR immunohystochemistry. No changes were observed in tumors from animals treated with saline or scPR. Tumors from animals treated with asPR exhibit increasing degrees of fibrosis, as well as occasional lymphocytic infiltration. TUNEL staining, indicative of apoptosis, was only observed in asPR-treated tumors (panel i), in which also very few 5-BrdU stained nuclei were observed (panel f). Few PR stained nuclei are observed in asPR-treated tumors (panel l) as compared with control or scPR-treated tumors, in which most of the cells are positive (panels j and k, respectively). asPR, antisense oligodeoxynucleotides to progesterone receptors; PR, progesterone receptor; scPR, scrambled oligodeoxynucleotides to progesterone receptors; TUNEL, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick-end labeling.