Figure 3

C26-induced cachexia. a) Gross appearance of control (left) compared with tumor-bearing mice (right) at 3 weeks following tumor implant. b) Carcass weight loss, defined as the total weight minus the tumor weight at given time points and reported as a percentage of the initial weight of each mouse. Non-significant weight loss is observed for up to two weeks of tumor burden, followed by 30% weight loss in the third week. c) If compared with a healthy mouse (left), the hindlimb of a tumor-bearing mouse (right) is severely atrophied at 3 weeks following transplantation. d) Dorsal and abdominal view of subcutaneous fat pads in control (left panels, arrows) and C26-bearing mice (right panels) at 3 weeks following transplantation. The subcutaneous fat is virtually absent in cachexia. e) The weight of several internal organs is unaffected 3 weeks following tumor transplant, while the spleen is hypertrophic. p > 0.01 by Student's t test if compared with the weight of matching organs from control animals. The mean ± SEM of two experiments performed in triplicate is shown.