Fig. 8

Roxarsone promotes activation of PI3K/Akt and expression of VEGF in B16–F10 xenografts. Western blotting of total tumor lysates was performed with β-actin used as a loading PBS control. The groups designed as Control, Low Rox, Middle Rox and High Rox represent the mice that were administered 0, 1, 5 and 25 mg/kg roxarsone respectively. A The levels of PI3K and Akt phosphorylation were determined by phosphorylated proteins standardized to non-phosphorylated proteins. B The VEGF level of tumors was determined by VEGF expression standardized to β-actin expression. The results represent the mean ± SD values from three independent experiments. *p < 0.05 vs. the PBS control. C The xenograft tumors were excised, and paraffin sections were subjected to VEGF immunochemical analysis (×400). Representative images (of at least five mice per group) are shown for the a PBS control and b–d 1, 5 and 25 mg/kg roxarsone groups. Blood vessels surrounding the positive staining regions (arrow indicated) were observed in the PBS control and roxarsone groups