Figure 5

Versican regulates formation of peritoneal tumors in an in vivo xenograft model of EOC. (A) Parental SKOV-3 and SKOV-3 stably transfected with VCAN shRNA (clone5 and clone6) were used in spheroid formation assay, collected, intraperitoneally injected into abdomens of athymic nude mice at 3 × 10⁶ cells/mouse (n = 6). Animals were monitored 3 times weekly for 38 days following sacrifice, dissection, and documentation of visible tumors. Distribution of metastatic lesions formed on omentum, colon, mesentery, stomach, spleen, liver, and peritoneal wall is shown as the number of animals bearing metastasis at that site. (B) Tumors formed after intraperitoneal injection of either transfected with vector control or parental SKOV-3, as indicated. Paraffin-embedded tumors were cut in 5 micron sections and stained with haematoxylin&eosin. Images were generated using Aperio ScanScope; bar, 50 micron. (C) Parental SKOV-3 and SKOV-3 stably transfected with VCAN shRNA (clone5 and clone6) were released from monolayers using trypsin, suspended in PBS, and intraperitoneally injected into abdomens of athymic nude mice at 3 × 10⁶ cells/mouse (n = 6). A histograms shows volumes of ascites collected from animals in each experimental and control groups (D). The data were statistically analysed using Student’s t-test; *p < 0.05, comparisons were made between experimental (VCANsh) and control (SKOV-3) groups.