Fig. 2

Dropwort extract affects in vivo mesothelioma tumor growth and impairs the survival of chemo resistant subpopulation (ALDH ^bright cells) of MPM cells. a Fil.v. extract reduces the number of ALDHbright cells in MSTO-211H culture. Representative flow cytometry plots showing the percentage of ALDHbright cells (gated) in MSTO-211H cell cultures treated for 24 h with vehicle or Fil.v. extract (25 μg/ml and 50 μg/ml) and stained for ALDH activity. The percentage of ALDHbright cells was determined over the same cells treated with a specific ALDH inhibitor (DEAB) immediately after adding the ALDH substrate (BAA) (b) Suspensions of 2 × 10⁶ MSTO-211H cells were pre-treated with either vehicle or Fil.v. extract (50 μg/ml) for 24 h and subcutaneously injected into CD1 mice. Horizontal bars represent the average tumor volume of the vehicle (n = 6) and the Fil.v. extract (n = 6) treated engrafted tumors. Tumors were collected 24 days after MSTO-211H cells injection. Statistics (t-test): p < 0.05. c Fil.v. extract beverage inhibits in vivo mesothelioma tumor progression. Tumour volumes of mice (n = 6) treated with vehicle, or Pemetrexed or the Fil.v. extract in drinking water are reported. Statistics (t-test): p < 0.05. (d) Left side. Representative micrographs of the excised tumours stained with anti-Ki-67 antibody. Scale bar, 100 μm. Right side. Histograms show the percentage of Ki-67 positive nuclei scored for each tumor Statistics (t-test): p < 0.05