Fig. 2

Gdf2 deletion decreases tumor perfusion and maturation in the E0771 mammary cancer model. E0771 cells were injected in the 4th mammary gland of WT and Gdf2^−/− mice and tumor vascularization was analyzed 9 days after tumor detection. a Representative images of the tumors stained for podocalyxin (red), lectin (green) and cell nuclei (blue, Hoechst). Scale bar 50 μm. b Vascular density quantified by podocalyxin positive area (% of tumor area) and (c) assessment of vessel diameter using Ferret’s theorem (WT n = 7, Gdf2^−/− n = 13, 1 representative experiment out of 2). d Quantification of vessel perfusion by lectin staining (% area of lectin/podocalyxin) (WT n = 8, Gdf2^−/− n = 7, 1 representative experiment out of 3). e Representative images of the tumors stained for podocalyxin (red), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) (green) and cell nuclei (blue, Hoechst). Scale bar 100 μm. f α-SMA staining quantification (% area of α-SMA/podocalyxin) (WT n = 8, Gdf2^−/− n = 7, 1 representative experiment out of 3). b, c, d, f Data are the median ± interquartile range. Statistical analysis: Mann-Whitney test. *p ≤ 0.05 and **p ≤ 0.01 significantly different