Fig. 3: Workflow for PDE culture showing multiplexed immunofluorescence outputs and assessment of drug responses in PDEs. | British Journal of Cancer

Fig. 3: Workflow for PDE culture showing multiplexed immunofluorescence outputs and assessment of drug responses in PDEs.

From: Patient-derived explants (PDEs) as a powerful preclinical platform for anti-cancer drug and biomarker discovery

Fig. 3

a shows the method for tissue processing, b shows the staining and scanning method and c shows the analysis workflow. In c, the image on the top left shows merged multi-immunofluorescence (mIF) staining of a non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) explant with Ki67, cPARP, pan-cytokeratin and DAPI. The application of the tumour mask (middle) and digitisation of the image (right) allows segregation of staining in the tumour and stroma. The graphs at the bottom depict four quadrants showing % proliferation (Ki67) and % cell death (cPARP) in the stroma and tumour for the NSCLC PDEs treated with vehicle control, cisplatin (CDDP) or experimental Drug X. The PDEs were more responsive to Drug X when compared with cisplatin in both tumour and stroma tissue. Each point represents one PDE with boxplots displaying the first and third quartile (hinges), and median (centre line) with error bars representing the range no further than 1.5× IQR (interquartile range). Significance bars indicate P < 0.05 according to the Kruskal–Wallis test. The findings in this Figure are the authors’ unpublished original data.

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