Fig. 1

Primary tumor removal limited PCa DTC in the bone. (A). The schematic diagram of experimental design. (B). Representative weekly luminescent images of subcutaneous C4-2B/Luc tumors in mice. Pre- and Post-tumor removal indicate the time points right before the surgery and after recovery in the same week. (C). The standard curve for DTC number estimation is based on band intensities from the species-specific PCR of genomic DNA. Plakoglobin was used here to normalize the genomic input. (D). The heatmap for estimated abundance of DTCs in different tissues. Color scale: 0, not detected; 1, 1–10 DTCs; 2, 10–100 DTCs; 3, > 100 DTCs. (E). Diagram of separation of the bone cortex from the bone marrow of mouse tibiae or femurs. (F). DTC abundance in mice’s bone cortex and bone marrow post xenografting. Upper panel, representative species-specific PCR gels; lower panel, heatmap for estimated DTC abundance. For genomic DNA loading, 2 µg total genomic DNA for α-satellite PCR of bone marrow, 0.6 µg for α-satellite PCR of bone cortex, and 0.5 µg for all plakoglobin PCR were used. (G). Representative pictures of IF staining of the bone marrow cells using a human species-specific mitochondrial antibody (red). DAPI (blue) was used to show the nucleus. Scale bar, 50 μm. Experiments were repeated at least twice with triplicates