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

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Figure 8. Expression/binding of selected platelet surface membrane activation markers on thrombin-activated blood 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, B), the active form of GPIIb/IIIa (C, D) and binding of endogenous vWF (E, F) and endogenous fibrinogen (Fg) (G, H) on platelets stimulated with thrombin (0.025 or 0.25 U/ml) were measured using flow cytometry in non-fixed ‘washed blood’ withdrawn immediately (t0, A, C, E, G) or after 5 weeks (t5, B, D, F, H) from the injection of 4T1 cells or saline.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 post hoc all-pairwise comparisons Conover-Inman or two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test, was: P-selectin thr0.025U/ml, P1,α < 0.05, 4T1 t0 < saline t0; P1,α < 0.01, 4T1 t5 > saline t5; active form of GPIIb/IIIa thr0.025U/ml, P1,α < 0.01, 4T1 t5 > saline t5; vWF thr0.025U/ml, P1,α < 0.05, 4T1 t0 > saline t0; P1,α < 0.01, 4T1 t5 > saline t5; vWF thr0.25U/ml, P1,α < 0.05, 4T1 t0 > saline t0; Fgthr0.025U/ml, P1,α < 0.05, 4T1 t0 < saline t0; P1,α < 0.01, 4T1 t5 > saline t5.