Figure 4: Systemic p38α/β inhibition interrupts DTC dormancy in the lungs.

(a,b) Representative images of P-H3 and vimentin (a) or cleaved caspase 3 (C-C3) and vimentin (b) staining in lung DTCs (upper panels, scale bar, 20 μm) and lung micro-metastases (micro-MET; only a) 4 weeks after surgery (scale bar, 40 μm; micro-MET (a), inset (b)). Arrows, marker+ cells. Graphs: percentage of P-H3+ (a) or C-C3+ (b) cells per lung section, mean±s.e.m. of three different lungs, 5 sections per lung (n = 45 (DTCs), n = 416 (Met) DTCs per lungs section (a), n = 36 (DTCs) (b)). *P<0.05 (a) and not significant (NS; b) by Mann–Whitney test. (c) Representative lung images containing HEp3–GFP DTCs or metastasis (scale bars, 80 μm, left column and 400 μm right column) after surgery and control or SB203580 (SB; 10 mg kg⁻¹ every 48 h) treatment for 2 and 4 weeks. Lower graphs: quantification of HEp3–GFP cells in whole lung suspensions. (n = 5 (left graph) and 4 (right graph) lungs per condition). See Supplementary Table S4 for the statistic source data of the right graph. *P<0.05 by Mann–Whitney test. (d) Number of lung F3II breast cancer macro-metastasis per lung in mice treated with dimethylsulphoxide (control) or SB203580 (SB). Top numbers: prevalence (%) of mice with more than 3 metastatic nodules per lung. n = 25 mice, *P = 0.046 by Mann–Whitney test.