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ABSTRACT
Curing pancreatic cancer is difficult as metastases often determine the poor clinical outcome. To gain more insight into the metastatic behavior of pancreatic cancer cells, we characterized migratory cells in primary pancreatic tumors using intravital microscopy. We visualized the migratory behavior of primary tumor cells of a genetically engineered pancreatic cancer mouse model and found that pancreatic tumor cells migrate with a mesenchymal morphology as single individual cells or collectively as a stream of non-cohesive single motile cells. These findings may improve our ability to conceive treatments that block metastatic behavior.
Abbreviations
| EMT | = | epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition |
| GEMMs | = | genetically engineered mouse models |
| IVM | = | Intravital microscopy |
| KPF/MC | = | pdx-1-Cre; KrasLSL-G12D/+; Trp53LSL-R172H/FLOX |
| KPF/MC-YFP | = | pdx-1-Cre; KrasLSL-G12D/+; Trp53LSL-R172H/FLOX; Rosa26YFP/+ |
| SEM | = | standard error of the mean |
| SHG | = | second harmonic generation |
| YFP | = | yellow fluorescent protein |
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Anko de Graaff and the HIC for imaging support, Miranda van Amersfoort for technical assistance, and the members of the Van Rheenen group for helpful discussions.
Funding
This work was supported by NWO (91710330; 700.10.402; 175.010.2007.00 and 834.11.002), ERC (648804) and KWF (HUBR 2009–4621).