Fig. 5 | Nature Communications

Fig. 5

From: Reversal of pancreatic desmoplasia by re-educating stellate cells with a tumour microenvironment-activated nanosystem

Fig. 5

Penetration of small molecules in Panc-1/PSC stroma-rich spheroids (PDAC-SS). PDAC-SS was generated by hanging drop culture of PSCs (pre-treated with different formulations) and Panc-1 cells. a Representative bright field images, Sirius red staining images, fibronectin immunofluorescence images and penetrated Hoechst 33342 fluorescence images of PDAC-SS. Scale bars, 100 μm. b–d Quantification of the normalised collagen positive (Sirius red stained) area (b), fibronectin protein expression (c) and penetration depth of Hoechst 33342 (d; using Image J software). Hoechst 33342, a low-molecular weight fluorescent DNA-binding dye, was used as a probe to visualise the penetrability of PDAC-SS. The data are shown as the mean ± s.d. (n = 3). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (Student’s t test)

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