Figure 1

Ablation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) expression increases the latency of mammary tumour formation and results in fewer hyperplastic lesions in mouse mammary tumour virus (MMTV)-Cre/-NDL2-5 mice. (a) Kinetics of mammary tumour onset in FAK^wt/wt, FAK^flox/wt, and FAK^flox/flox/MMTV-Cre/-NDL2-5 virgin female mice. The age indicated is that at which a mammary tumour is first palpable in each transgenic strain. T₅₀ denotes the age at which a tumour is palpated in 50% of the mice. *P < 0.001 vs. FAK^wt/wt mice, Student's t-test. (b) Quantification of the area occupied by hyperplastic lesions expressed as a percentage (± standard error of the mean, SEM) of the total mammary gland surface (c). Quantitative image analysis of the mammary gland wholemounts was performed using the Aperio ImageScope software. P < 0.05 vs. FAK^wt/wt mice, Student's t-test. (c) Representative fourth inguinal mammary gland wholemounts excised from late-stage tumour-bearing animals that are FAK^wt/wt (left), FAK^flox/wt (center) and FAK^flox/flox (right)/MMTV-Cre/-NDL2-5. Scale bar: 5 mm. (d) H&E-stained sections of mammary glands from 6-month-old non-tumour-bearing animals that are FAK^wt/wt (left), FAK^flox/wt (center) and FAK^flox/flox (right)/MMTV-Cre/-NDL2-5. Images are representative of at least five animals from each genotype and multiple fields were quantified. Scale bars: 200 μm.