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Fig. 3 | Breast Cancer Research

Fig. 3

From: Glucocorticoids promote transition of ductal carcinoma in situ to invasive ductal carcinoma by inducing myoepithelial cell apoptosis

Fig. 3

In vivo stress model and the effects on evolution of the MCF10DCIS xenograft. a Timeline of the in vivo stress model indicating blood extraction and the immobilization method applied. b Corticosterone levels (ng/ml) in plasma samples obtained at different points of the in vivo stress model in mice, in the control and stressed group of MCF10DCIS xenograft. The Wilcoxon paired test was used for statistical analysis. c Left panel: representative image of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA, a myoepithelial cell marker) from immunohistochemical analysis of the control and stressed tumours in mice. Scale bar = 50 μm. c Right panel: duct size quantification by Image J Software. In vivo experiments were performed using five animals per group. The Mann-Whitney test was used for statistical analysis. d Left panel: representative laminin immunohistochemical images in control and stressed MCF10DCIS xenografts. Scale bar = 50 μm. d Right panel: laminin and p63 double immunofluorescence and quantification of laminin intensity images (Image J Software) of tumours derived from control and stressed mice. Hoechst dye was used to counterstain the nuclei. Scale bar = 20 μm. e Left panel: representative cleaved caspase 3 immunohistochemical image of a tumour from stressed mice. Scale bar = 20 μm. e Middle panel: representative cleaved caspase 3(green) and p63(red) immunofluorescence image of a tumour from stressed mice. Hoechst dye was used as the counterstain for nuclei. Scale bar = 20 μm. e Right panel: quantification of caspase 3-positive myoepithelial cells per duct in control and tumours from stressed mice; n = 5 animals/group. The Mann-Whitney test was used for statistical analysis. DCIS, ductal carcinoma in situ

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