Fig. 4

Induced High DCX Expression effectively improves GBM tumor growth and invasiveness. a Wound healing migration assay for detection of GFP-fused C6 (wt-C6) cell migration compared with GDCX-C6 cells, distance covered was quantified and represented by histogram data t = − 9.459 and df = 4. b Invasion assay conducted with GDCX-C6 and wt C6 cells and the quantification of invasive cells at the lower chamber. t = − 9.154 and df = 4. c Schematic of GDCX and wt C6 cells implantation into the brain of nude BALB/c mice. d Representative bioluminescence images from GDCX mouse and C6-GFP mouse. e Representative Hematoxylin-Eosin staining derived from of 8 μm tissue slices of GDCX and wt-C6 mice brain from a 200 μm region beyond the macroscopic boundary and the enlarged section of tumor edge showing infiltrating tumors at the invasive frontiers. The dashed boundary depicts the distance covered by invasive cells. Scale bar, 50 μm. f Immunohistochemical staining comparing DCX (df = 4, t = 15.211), GFAP (df = 4, t = 6.886), and vimentin (df = 4, t = 9.075) immunoreactivity in GDCX and wt-C6 tumors. Immunoreactivity was quantified using Image-Pro Plus, one to two sections per subject. Scale bars = 25 μm. g Immunostaining of brain sections showing DCX nuclear accumulation intensity with representative images of nuclei stained DAPI. Arrows indicate nuclear DCX-positive cells at the edge of tumors. Scale bars = 25 μm. h Representative immunofluorescence images of invasive glioma markers (CD31 and EGFR) in GDCX and wt-C6 tumors. Scale bar, 25 μm