Fig. 3: Cancer cells interact with DRG sensory neurons in the in vitro PNI model.

A A representative section of a DRG-nerve preparation from 2-week-old in vitro PNI model comprising GFP⁺ MDA-MB-231 cells shows the distribution of GFP⁺ PNI cells (white arrows) at the rim of neurons (yellow arrows) or at close proximity to the neurons. The neurons are immunostained for βIII tubulin (scale bar, 50 µm). B A representative section of a DRG-nerve preparation from 2-week-old in vitro PNI model comprising GFP⁺ MDA-MB-231 cells shows no major overlap of GFP⁺ PNI cells (white arrows) and SGCs (yellow arrows) in the DRG. The SGCs are immunostained for GFAP (scale bar, 50 µm). (C: two rows) A representative section of a DRG-nerve preparation from 2-week-old in vitro PNI model comprising GFP⁺ LASCPC01 shows the distribution of GFP⁺ cancer cells (white arrows) and SGCs (purple arrows). The neurons are immunostained for βIII tubulin (yellow arrows) and SGCs are immunostained for GFAP. The images show no physical overlap of cancer cells (white arrows) and SGCs (purple arrows) in the merged image (scale bar, 50 µm). The enlarged inset of the GFP⁺LASCPC-01 image shows the presence of morphologically small cancer cells (white arrows), while the enlarged inset of the merged image shows the co-localization of the morphologically small cancer cells and Dapi (white arrows).