Extended Data Fig. 8: MER promotes emergence from metastatic dormancy whereas AXL induces dormancy.

a, Five young mice per group were intradermally injected with 2.5x10⁵ Yumm1.7 Dox inducible MER overexpressing mCherry melanoma cells. Mice were treated with Dox (2 mg/mL in water) from day 3 (Dox day 3) or day 21 onwards (Dox day 21), with tumours measured for 5 weeks. Lungs were taken, PFA embedded and underwent IHC analysis of mCherry positive melanoma cells. Representative images are displayed across three independent mice for mCherry positive cells and Ki-67 with the scale bar representing 100 um. b, c 5 aged mice per group were intradermally injected with 2.5x10⁵ Yumm1.7 Dox inducible AXL overexpressing mCherry melanoma cells. Mice were treated with Dox (2 mg/mL in water) from day 3 (Dox day 3) or day 21 onwards (Dox day 21), with tumours measured for 5 weeks. Lungs were taken, PFA embedded and underwent IHC analysis of mCherry positive melanoma cells. Representative images are displayed across three independent mice for mCherry positive cells and Ki-67 with the scale bar representing 100 um. Given that both Dox groups failed to produce larger lesions, these groups were assessed for the average number of single cell colonies per high powered frame (20 x) across entire lung sections and presented as mean +/− SEM. A student’s two-way t-test was performed. P = 0.5240.