Fig. 1: β-glucan treatment restricts liver metastasis.

a Schematic of macrophage plasticity. b Schematic of Intraportal (iPo) injection model. c Study design for (d–j). Data are representative of 4 independent experiments. d Representative gross images of dissected livers. Scale bar, 1 cm. e Quantification of PDAC-YFP tumor cells detected in the liver by FCM in control (n = 10) and BG-treated (n = 9) mice. f Representative images of livers from control and BG-treated mice after iPo injection of PDAC-YFP cells. Tissues stained using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) (top) and mIHC (bottom). Scale bar, 500μm. Insets show a metastatic lesion. Scale bar, 100μm. g PDAC-YFP (CK19⁺) tumor cells detected in the liver by IHC and shown as a percent of the liver area in control and BG-treated mice (n = 10 each). h CK19⁺Ki67⁺ PDAC-YFP tumor cells detected in liver by IHC and shown as cells per CK19⁺ area (mm²) in control and BG-treated mice (n = 10 each). i Representative images of liver stained by mIHC as indicated in (f). Metastatic lesions, blue dashed lines. Top row images, scale bar, 500μm. Bottom row images. Scale bar, 100μm. j PDAC-YFP (CK19⁺) tumor cells detected in liver metastatic lesions by IHC and shown as percent of metastatic lesion area as drawn in i. Control (n = 259) and BG-treated (n = 28) tumor lesions were analyzed from control and BG-treated livers (n = 10 each). k Study design for (l). Data are representative of 4 independent experiments. l Quantification of PDAC-YFP tumor cells detected in the liver on Day 2 by FCM in control (n = 9) and BG-treated (n = 9) mice. m Study design for n. Data are representative of 3 independent experiments. n Quantification of PDAC-YFP tumor cells detected in the liver by FCM in control (n = 7) and BG (n = 9) treated mice. o Study design for (p). Kaplan–Meier plot for control (n = 10) and BG (n = 9) treated mice. Data are representative of 2 independent experiments. Unpaired two-tailed Welch’s t-test (e, g, h, j, l, n) and Log-rank test (p). Mean ± SD is shown (e, f, g, h, j, l, n). FCM, flow cytometry; IHC, immunohistochemistry; iPo, intraportal.