25% MM-102 cost trypsin/0.02% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) solution. These

cells were then used for the metastatic model, cell immunostaining, and total RNA extraction. Animals and the spontaneous LN metastasis model Female C57BL/6 mice (6–8 weeks ARS-1620 in vivo old) were purchased from Kyudo Co., Ltd. (Saga, Japan). All animal studies were conducted using protocols approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee, Fukuoka Dental College. For the spontaneous LN metastasis model, tumor cells (1 x 105 in 50 μl DMEM) were injected submucosally into the left border of the tongue [21]. Control mice were untreated. To trace lymphatic drainage, 10 μl Evan’s blue dye (0.4%) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was injected into sites of melanoma cell inoculation 15 min before sacrifice. Tissue preparation Cervical LNs were excised 1–21 days after injection from three animals in each treatment group. On the terminal day, the weight of each LN was measured, and the specimens immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. Frozen specimens were cut into sections of 6-μm thickness and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) to visualize histopathological changes. Frozen sections

were also used for immunofluorescence and extraction of total RNA. Immunofluorescence Tissue sections and B16F10 cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS for 15 min at 4°C, then washed in PBS. To evaluate lymphangiogenesis

ALOX15 in tumor-associated LNs, we simultaneously performed three types of Selleck JNK-IN-8 double immunofluorescent staining on frozen sections comprising two mixtures of two primary antibodies, goat anti-mouse/rat tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TRP-1, 1:100; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc., Sata Cruz, CA, USA) and biotinylated anti-mouse LYVE-1 (1:200; R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, USA) and rat anti-mouse CD45RB (1:100; Acris Antibodies, Herford, Germany) and biotinylated anti-mouse LYVE-1 and a mixture of rat anti-mouse CD31 (1:100; Becton Dickinson and Co., Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) and biotinylated anti-mouse LYVE-1 for 2 h at room temperature. After washing with PBS, sections were incubated in a mixture of anti-goat immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody conjugated with Alexa Fluor 488 or anti-rat IgG antibody conjugated with Alexa Flour 488 (1:200; Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR, USA), and streptavidin conjugated with Alexa Fluor 568 (1:400; Molecular Probes) for 30 min at room temperature. These two simultaneously incubated double immunofluorescence stainings were applied to examine the codistribution of VEGF-C and Fms-related tyrosine kinase 4 (Flt-4, or VEGFR-3) in tumor-associated LNs.