Selection of detected CTC subtypes using multi-immunofluorescence staining.

<p>As described above we detected a variety of CTC subtypes. N-cadherin and CD133 were stained on separate slides, respectively, together with CK, CD45 and DAPI. Pseudo colours were used to depict CTC subtypes: N-cadherin (mesenchymal,yellow); CD133 (stem-cell-like, yellow), pan-cytokeratin (CK; epithelial, red), CD45 (hematopoietic, green) and DAPI (nucleus, blue). We were able to detect cells with epithelial and mesenchymal properties like N-cad+/CK+/CD45low, as well as cells with mesenchymal features such as N-cad+/CK−/CD45low. We also observed cells showing mixed characteristics like CD133+/CK+/CD45+ and cells with epithelial characteristics such as CD133−/CK+/CD45− cells. More CTC subtypes were detected, but are not shown in this figure.