Effect of intratumoral injections of MG132 on vascularization induced by active Rac1/Cdc42 in MCF-7 cell xenografts.

<p>These experiments were described in the Materials and Methods section. Stably transfected cells (MCF-7, GST–MCF-7, V12Rac1–MCF-7, L61Cdc42–MCF-7) were used for xenografts in nude mice. When the tumors reached a volume of 200 mm3, the mice were treated with intratumoral injections of a specific dose of MG132 (10 mg/kg) or PBS. (A, B) Intratumoral vascularization was assessed by VEGF and p53 immunolabeling (400 × power) on paraffin-embedded MCF-7 cell tumor sections. Representative images are shown. Integrated optical density (IOD) values of VEGF and p53 protein expression were evaluated. ImagePro Plus software was used to analyze the IOD values of the positive areas of immunohistochemical staining. The resulting histograms are presented here. A statistical analysis was performed using a one-way ANOVA. The results are presented as mean ± SD for six mice. *<i>P</i><0.05; **<i>P</i><0.01.