Fig. 4

Ectopic overexpression of miR-1 decreases tumor growth and metastasis of intracardiac xenografts. A Schematic of SBC5 (-DOX-Off/ + DOX-On) intracardiac xenografts in NSG mice. B Representative IVIS images of NSG mice intracardially injected with SBC5 cells expressing luciferase (Day 0). C Representative IVIS images of mice bearing intracardiac xenografts on the end day of the experiment just before the time of sacrifice (one female and one male mice), with ex-vivo IVIS imaging of major organs showing SCLC metastasis such as lung, liver, brain, bone, stomach, intestine, pancreas, spleen, adrenal and ovary. Mice were injected with luciferin i.p. (150 mg/kg in sterile PBS) 5 min before euthanasia; following that the major organs were collected and scanned for metastatic lesions using IVIS imaging. D Quantification of the IVIS luminescence for each mice from no miR-1 and ( +)miR-1 group. E Representative ex-vivo images of liver showing metastasis nodules excised from no miR-1 and ( +)miR-1 groups. F Checkerboard representation of metastasis in the major organs of NSG mice as collected from SBC5 intracardiac xenografts of no miR-1(-DOX-Off) and + miR-1 (+ DOX-On) groups (data from n = 6 mice). Metastasis was studied using IVIS imaging and H&E analysis. G Representative H&E of liver and lung tissues having metastasis with an area highlighted with a box provided in higher-magnification or zoom inset. Scale bars represent 1 mm and 50 µm (with successive 20X magnification)