Figure 4.
Cell migration in vivo. A: Compartment-mimicking principle of an in vivo model of chemotaxis. Tumor cells are injected into the flank of the animal (I, compartment or origin). Metastases are monitored in the abdominal and thoracic tissues (II, destination compartments: lung, liver, peritoneum, retroperitoneum) after intraperitoneal stimulation. B: Metastatic spread to liver, lung, peritoneum and retroperitoneal tissue is analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), according to the level of human polymerase (RNA) II polypeptide 2 (POL2). Means of cycle threshhold (ct) values were used for graphic depiction of results. There is a relevant effect of stromal-cell derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1α) stimulation (100 and 500 ng) on all organs compared to the sham-treated group (DPBS). Detection of human, and thus metastatic, cells was even greater in lung and peritoneum in the group treated with 500 ng SDF-1α, compared to the positive tumor control, indicating a strong metastatic effect.