Fig. 3

RALA, but not RALB, promotes metastatic growth in spontaneous and experimental models of TNBC lung metastasis. a Representative images (top) and quantitation (bottom) of lungs harvested from mice bearing MDA-MB-231 Ctrl (n = 5), RALA-KO (n = 6), or RALB-KO (n = 6) tumors. Lungs were harvested when early removal criteria (ERC) was reached for each respective cohort. Scale bar is 100μm. b Representative H&E images and quantification of lung metastases arising in mice bearing orthotopic MVT1 shCtrl (n = 6) or shRALA (n = 6) mammary tumors. Lung metastasis were categorized as nodules, foci, or emboli. Representative images of each category are shown. Scale bars are 50μm except for the representative foci image which is 20μm. All mice were sacrificed when the shCtrl group met ERC. c Experimental metastasis assay. Representative IVIS images and quantification of total flux in the lungs of mice following tail vein inoculation of luciferase-tagged MDA-MB-231 shCtrl (n = 15) or shRALA (n = 10) cells over 24 days. e Extravasation and early colonization assay. Representative IVIS images and quantification of total flux in the lungs of mice following tail vein inoculation of luciferase-tagged MDA-MB-231 shCtrl (n = 13) or shRALA (n = 11) cells over 96 h. Data are presented as mean ± SEM; (*), P < 0.05