Figure 1
(A) Expression values for VEGF-A, KDR, pKDR-Y1775 and CD31 represented in histograms for each biomarker for the whole series of RCC patients. VEGF-A, KDR and pKDR-Y1775 are expressed as HScore in tumour and MVD as absolute number of CD31-positive vascular structures. (B) Representative microscopic pictures for VEGF-A, KDR, pKDR and MVD in studied metastatic RCC cases detected by immunohistochemistry. Vascular endothelial growth factor-A was detected in the cytoplasm of tumour cells with low (1), intermediate (2) and high expression (3) ( × 400 magnification, scale bar: 30 μm). In addition, stromal cells showed VEGF-A staining. Expression of KDR was seen in endothelial cells, preferentially in tumour stroma. Representative images showing low (4), intermediate (5) and high expression (6) ( × 400 magnification, scale bar: 30 μm). pKDR-Y1775 was exclusively detected in the endothelial cells of tumour stroma. Tumours showed low (7), intermediate (8) and high (9) levels of pKDR in vascular structures ( × 400 magnification, scale bar: 30 μm). Studied cases displayed important differences in MVD, detecting sparse (10), intermediate (11) and dense (12) vascular density ( × 40 magnification, scale bar: 300 μm).
