Melanoma Invades Healthy Tissue 2

Melanoma Invades Healthy Tissue 2

MIT Department of Biological Engineering, MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Koch Institute at MIT

Tumor cells are very dynamic and an early characteristic of their progression towards cancer involves movement and invasion of various parts of your body. In these photos we are visualizing mutated melanocytes (green) invading the connective tissue (collagen in grey) of a mouse ear, stretching out along the connective fibers with long extensions; normal cells (red) are also seen in the surrounding area. The extensive network of outstretched green and grey cells and fibers conveys the invasive, aggressive nature of the mutated tumor progressing.

More like this