Fig. 6
From: Controlled gene and drug release from a liposomal delivery platform triggered by X-ray radiation
Antitumour activity of X-ray triggered LipoDox in a xenograft model of colorectal cancer. a,b Changes of (a) tumours’ volume and (b) mouse body weight after various treatments as indicated. A black arrow indicates the time of treatment administration. Error bars show standard deviation from four experiments. The mean tumour volumes were analysed using the t test (n = 4). * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001. c The structural components of treated tumour (H&E staining). Viable tumour tissues (1) were composed of uniform cells with basophilic (blue) cytoplasm and large roundish hyperchromatic nuclei. The areas of cellular paranecrosis and necrosis (2) were recognised by disorganised groups of tumour cells with eosinophilic (pink) cytoplasm, with and without nuclei, respectively. Arrows indicate congested blood vessels. Note the spatial association between the viable tumour tissue and blood vessels. Scale bar is 50 µm. d Boxplot shows morphometric analysis of the effect of the experimental treatment regimens on the structural composition of the xenograft tumours. The relative areas of the viable and non-viable (paranecrotic and necrotic) tumour tissues were measured using ImageJ open source software. The box is bounded by the first and third quartile with a horizontal line at the median and whiskers extend to 1.5 times the interquartile range. The mean tumour necrosis percentage was analysed using the t test (n = 5). * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001, compared with X-ray-triggered LipoDox-treated group
