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Fig. 3 | Breast Cancer Research

Fig. 3

From: OSM potentiates preintravasation events, increases CTC counts, and promotes breast cancer metastasis to the lung

Fig. 3

Peritumoral oncostatin M (OSM) injections into mice with MDA-MB-231-D3H2LN tumors promote the development of metastases and circulating tumor cells (CTCs). a The timeline shows orthotopic MDA-MB-231-D3H2LN human breast tumor cell injection at day 0, peritumoral OSM or PBS injections beginning three times per week at day 13, and the final day of killing of both groups at day 61. Average tumor volume (mm3) did not differ between the peritumorally injected OSM and PBS control groups. b Representative images of PBS- and OSM-injected tumor-bearing mice imaged ventrally by bioluminescence imaging (BLI). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups. c Left: Representative ex vivo BLI study of lungs and spine from mice bearing MDA-MB-231-D3H2LN Luc2 tumors that were treated with peritumoral injections of PBS or OSM. Right: Ex vivo BLI intensities were quantified in the lung and spine. Lungs from mice receiving peritumoral OSM injections showed a 37.9-fold higher BLI intensity than those with PBS injections, and spines from mice injected with OSM showed an approximately 25.9-fold increase over mice that received PBS injections. Data are expressed as photons/second (mean ± SEM; n = 5–6). d Human CTCs containing human Alu DNA were detected in mouse blood by qPCR. In animals that received OSM injections, there was a fourfold increase in the number of CTCs compared with controls. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM *p < 0.05 by two-tailed t test

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