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Figure 4 | BMC Cancer

Figure 4

From: Evaluating human cancer cell metastasis in zebrafish

Figure 4

Quantitation of metastatic cells in zebrafish using Fiji. Fluorescent (a, left) and bright field (a, center) images of Dil-stained (red) human MDA231 cancer cells are captured by confocal microscopy. Individual red cells are counted relative to their location throughout the fish (a, center) using Fiji. Cells within the yolk sac (boxed) can be eliminated from the cell count (a, right). Cells were counted using this approach (b) either throughout the body of the fish (left) or confined to the tail region (right) in the same fish over a 48–120 hours period after injection. Cells visualized by the fluorescent dye (arrows) and following Fiji analysis (right) were plotted from the same 10 different fish at the three time points showing (c) no significant difference in mean number of cells counted in the whole fish body (left) up to 80 hours. Although the number of metastatic cells was reduced when cells restricted to the tail region were counted (right), there was again no significant difference in metastatic cells up to 80 hours after injection. At later stages (120 hpi), an ~25% reduction in metastatic cell numbers was observed in both the fish body and the tail alone. Data are presented as the mean of three independent experiments (n = 3) ± SEM, P < 0.05.

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