Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 6 pp 5091—5120
Time-dependent interactions of blood platelets and cancer cells, accompanied by extramedullary hematopoiesis, lead to increased platelet activation and reactivity in a mouse orthotopic model of breast cancer – implications for pulmonary and liver metastasis
Figure 5. Activation of circulating platelets in mice injected with 4T1 cancer cells or saline. Results are presented as median (horizontal line) and interquartile range (box) (n = 8). The expressions of P-selectin (CD62P) (A), the active form of GPIIb/IIIa (B) and the binding of endogenous vWF (C) and endogenous fibrinogen (Fg) (D) on resting platelets were measured using flow cytometry in non-fixed ‘washed blood’ withdrawn immediately (t0) or after 5 weeks (t5) from the injection of mice with 4T1 cancer cells or saline. Results are expressed as the percent fraction of platelets positive for a given activation marker. More experimental details are given in the Materials and methods section. The statistical significance of differences, estimated with Kruskal-Wallis test followed by the post hoc Conover-Inman all-pairwise comparisons test, P-selectinresting, P1,α < 0.001, 4T1 t5 > saline t5; P1,α < 0.001, 4T1 t5 > 4T1 t0; active form of GPIIb/IIIaresting, P1,α < 0.001, 4T1 t5 > saline t5; P1,α < 0.001, 4T1 t5 > 4T1 t0; vWFresting, P1,α < 0.001, 4T1 t5 > saline t5; P1,α < 0.001, 4T1 t5 > 4T1 t0; Fgresting, P1,α < 0.001, 4T1 t5 > saline t5; P1,α < 0.001, 4T1 t5 > 4T1 t0.