Rapid extravasation and establishment of breast cancer micrometastases in the liver microenvironment.

ABSTRACT: To examine the interplay between tumor cells and the microenvironment during early breast cancer metastasis, we developed a technique for ex vivo imaging of murine tissue explants using two-photon microscopy. Cancer cells in the liver and the lung were compared by imaging both organs at specific time points after the injection of the same polyomavirus middle T-initiated murine mammary tumor cell line. Extravasation was greatly reduced in the lung compared with the liver, with 56% of tumor cells in the liver having extravasated by 24 hours, compared with only 22% of tumor cells in the lung that have extravasated. In the liver, imaged cells continually transitioned from an intravascular location to an extravascular site, whereas in the lung, extravasation rates slowed after 6 hours. Within t

SUBMITTER: Martin MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2981168 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature