Fig. 5

Effects of IFN-β and gemcitabine using an ex vivo precision cut tissue slice model. a Experimental design for ex vivo experiments. Slices, derived from xenograft BxPC-3 tumors of untreated mice, were incubated for 72 h without or with IFN-β (100 IU/ml), gemcitabine (1 ng/ml), or the combination of IFN-β plus gemcitabine. b Representative tissue slides of human pancreatic cancer xenograft tissue slices stained for KI-67 (upper panel) or caspase-3 (lower panel) in control and treated slices. c Immunohistochemical analysis of Ki-67 (left) and cleaved caspase-3 (right) expression, representing the proportion of proliferating cells and the proportion of apoptotic cells respectively. Values represent mean ± SEM of at least three different areas within the tumor and are shown as a percentage of control. **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 versus control