Fig. 8

Tumor cell specific NP delivery is linked to specialized TECs, TAM and CAF levels. a Representative RNAscope images of tumor sections stained against CD31, CD276, Plvap mRNA and counterstained with DAPI nuclear stain. Scale bars = 50 µm. The top row is from a tumor with high levels of NP⁺ cancer cells, the bottom row is from a tumor with low levels of NP⁺ cancer cells. b Violin plots of quantified RNAscope data expressed as the % of Plvap⁺ TECs, CD276⁺ TECs and Plvap⁺CD276⁺ TECs relative to total TEC levels for tumors with high and low levels of NP⁺ cancer cells. Statistically significant differences between high and low NP groups for every parameter is indicated where appropriate (n = 10; *: p < 0.05; **: p < 0.01). c–f The relative level of cells present in the tumor, where TAM and CAF levels are expressed relative to the total level cells in the tumor, while N-TECs are expressed as the number of CD276⁺ Plvap⁺ TECs compared to total TEC levels. The data are shown for c) group (a) which has high TAM and CAF levels and low N-TECs, d group (b) which has low TAM and CAF levels and high N-TECs, e group (c) which has high TAM and CAF and high N-TECs, and f group (d) which has low TAM and CAF and low N-TECs. g Violin plots showing the relative percentage of NP⁺ cancer cells expressed as the % of NP⁺ cancer cells as determined by ImageStreamX Mark II expressed relative to the total cancer cell population. The data are shown for groups a-d, revealing that high levels of NP⁺ cancer cells requires low TAM and CAF levels but a high ratio of N-TECs. Statistically significant differences between the different groups are indicated where appropriate (n = 10; *: p < 0.05; ****: p < 0.0001)