Fig. 7
From: CRO-67 has anti-cancer activity in pancreatic tumor cells and stromal cancer-associated fibroblasts
Low doses of CRO-67 treatment in PDAC tumor explants from patients reduced tumor and CAF cell frequency, and reduced cell proliferation. PDAC tumor explants from N = 5 patients were cultured for 12 days and treated with 0, 1, and 2 μg/mL of CRO-67 every 72 h. (a) Representative immunohistochemistry (IHC) images for Patient 12 explants stained for tumor cells (cytokeratin), CAFs (α-smooth muscle actin [αSMA]), proliferating cells (BrdU), and cell death (TUNEL). Positive staining for IHC is brown, positive TUNEL staining is red, and nuclei are blue. Please note that the red stain present in the control representative image was predominantly non-nuclear background staining, and was not included in quantification. Quantification of IHC stain for (b) tumor cell, (c) CAFs, (d) proliferating cells, and (e) cell death was performed using QuPath software. Inset images for BrdU staining show nuclei positive for BrdU in brown compared to BrdU negative nuclear-only staining in blue. TUNEL was not quantifiable in Patient 11 explants (Red symbols) due to dead areas not presenting nuclei. Patient 12 explants (light blue symbols) were not treated with 2 μg/mL CRO-67 due to limited availability of tumor tissue. Symbols represent the mean of 2–4 explants per treatment from each patient. Colors indicate percentage relative to control for each patient. Bars represent mean ± SEM (N = 5). Asterisks indicate statistical significance as assessed by one-way ANOVA, and Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons tests (**p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001).
