Fig. 3: CXCL13 enhances the response of anti-PD-1 therapy in the subcutaneous ESCC mouse model.

a The design and workflow of in vivo experiments. Containing modified images from Servier Medical Art (https://smart.servier.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Created in BioRender. Wang, X. (2024) BioRender.com/h07a127. b Representative images of the subcutaneous tumor models treated with saline or CXCL13 or anti-PD-1 or a combination of CXCL13 and anti-PD-1. c Growth curves of the subcutaneous tumors among the indicated four groups. Short horizontal lines indicate mean ± SD (n = 5 per group). ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001 of two-sided t-test. d Histograms showing the tumor weights of the subcutaneous tumors among the indicated four groups (n = 5 per group). ^***p < 0.001 of two-sided t-test. Percentages of CD20⁺ cells (e), CD3⁺CD8⁺ cells (f), and PD-1⁺ cells (g) in the subcutaneous tumors among the indicated four groups (n = 5 per group). The corresponding quantification histograms were displayed. ^***p < 0.001 of two-sided t-test. h Representative HE staining images of the subcutaneous tumors among the indicated four groups (n = 5 per group). Scale bar: 1000 or 2000 μm. i Representative images of multiplex fluorescence showing CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ cell infiltration among the indicated four groups (n = 5 per group). Scale bar: 50 μm. CD4, red. CD8, green. DAPI, blue.