Figure 2

Increased tumor initiation, growth, and metastasis of MDA-MB-231 migratory cells. (a,b) Migratory MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells have increased frequency of tumor formation and produce larger tumors. Bioluminescence images of female NSG mice 50 days after orthotopic implantation of 100 migratory or non-migratory cells recovered from the migration device. Scale bar denotes range of photons displayed on pseudocolor scale with red and blue denoting highest and lowest values, respectively. Note that the minimum display is 2 logs lower for mice with non-migratory cells to show any signal. If the minimum is set to same level as tumors from migratory cells, no signal is evident. Conversely, if the minimum is set to the value used for non-migratory cells, light shines over the entire mouse in the migratory group. (c) Tumor growth of highly-migratory and non-migratory MDA-MB-231 cells. Graphs show mean and SEM data only from mice that formed tumors in each group. Bioluminescence imaging shows greater growth of migratory cancer cells (p < 0.01 by area-under-the-curve for photon flux). (d) Metastasis induced by highly-migratory and non-migratory MDA-MB-231 cells. Migratory cancer cells produced greater metastases throughout mice as determined by bioluminescence imaging (**p < 0.01; ***p < 0.005). Note log scale on graphs. (e) Representative bioluminescence images of mice injected with 100 MDA-MB-231 migratory or non-migratory cells, depicting greater metastasis for mice injected with the highly migratory cells.