2, 1, and 2 μg/μl. The tumor promotion effect was greater for tumors treated with 1 μg/μl CXCL12 and NSPCs, and hence, 1 μg/μl CXCL12 in 5 μl of PBS (pH 7.4) was selected for use in this study. In the CXCL12-NSPC and CXCL12-only groups, a solution of CXCL12 was injected stereotaxically near the tumor sites using the same surgical procedure as described above. The animals underwent five MRI examinations, with the same imaging procedure being followed for every time point. Selleckchem Vincristine Images were acquired at 0, 1, 14, 28, and 42 days after

injections (no data are shown herein for the 1-day time point). All MRI examinations were performed using a horizontal 7.0-T spectrometer (PharmaScan 70/16; Bruker, Ettlingen, Germany) with an active shielding gradient of 300 mT/m in 80 microseconds. The animals were anesthetized with 2% isoflurane in O2 at a flow rate of 1 l/min. The breathing rate was maintained at between 60 and 70 breaths per minute. The anesthetized rats were fitted into a custom-designed head holder and immobilized with ear bars to minimize movement artifacts. T2WIs were acquired with the following parameters: field of view = 3 cm; slice thickness = 1 mm; 28 slices; repetition time = 5100 milliseconds; echo time = 70 milliseconds;

echo train length = 8; number of excitations = 6; and matrix size = 256 × 256. These images were used to measure the tumor volume and to monitor the tumor morphology. The outlines of the tumors were delineated on the basis of the contrast provided by the T2WIs between the tumor and the brain tissues. The total selleck screening library tumor volume was calculated by summing the tumor area in three dimensions using Avizo software (version Lonafarnib 6.0; Visualization Sciences Group, Burlington, MA). Growth curves were plotted as the change in tumor volume at each time point relative to the baseline volume. The hypointense area was selected manually on the T2WIs. The total hypointense volume was calculated by summing the hypointense areas in three dimensions using Avizo

software. The ratio of the intratumoral hypointense area was then calculated by dividing the intratumoral hypointense volume by that of the entire tumor region. To correlate MRI signal changes with histologic data, animals were perfused transcardially with 4% paraformaldehyde (Sigma-Aldrich) in PBS (pH 7.4) immediately after the scanning performed at the last time point. The brains were removed from the cranium, kept in the same fixative overnight at 4°C, and then sectioned at a thickness of 50 μm using a cryostat (CM 3050S; Leica Microsystems, Wetzlar, Germany). The brain sections were stained using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) to confirm whether the signal changes detected on the T2WIs were indeed induced by the pathologic conditions, such as necrosis and hemorrhage within the tumor.