Figure 7
Cabozantinib prevents growth of patient-selected and CSC-enriched spheroids. (a) Tumor mush isolated from surgical non-diagnostic specimens of patients with PDA was transplanted subcutaneous to the flanks of immunodeficient 6-week-old NMRI (nu/nu) female mice followed by subtransplantation until a stable growing xenograft line developed after passage 3. Morphology of the primary patient tumors was detected by Trichrome staining of frozen tissue followed by microscopy. Anchorage-independent spheroidal cultures were established from stably-growing xenograft lines and were left either untreated or were treated with 10 μ M cabozantinib, 50 nM gemcitabine or both together for 72 h. (b) Treated spheroidal cultures were cytospinned to glass slides and CSC marker expression (c-Met, CD133, SOX2) and activity of caspase-3 (Casp3) were examined by immunohistochemistry. The number of positive cells was quantified in 10 vision fields under × 400 magnification and the means±S.D. are shown (*p<0.05 compared with control). Arrowheads indicate positive cells
