Fig. 3

Vascular degeneration and co-option by cancer cells within in vitro metastatic blood-tumor barrier. a Time course images of BBB and BTB models (day 2 to day 6). Two modes of vascular degeneration (collapse and defects) were observed in the presence of metastatic spheroids. White arrows identify the locations of initial signs of vascular collapse or defect formation. iBMECs (magenta) and JIMT-1-BR (green). b Lifespan across n = 17 BBB microvessels and n = 32 BTB microvessels. ***p < 0.001. c–d Schematic of tumor-vessel interactions and their cumulative frequency across n = 32 devices. e Higher magnification images of tumor-vessel interactions. The inset shows the xz projection of the confocal image, while other the images are epifluorescence. Images have brightness and contrast enhanced to enable visualization of the interactions. f Time course imaging of perivascular tumor growth and mosaic vessel formation. See also Additional file 1: Fig. S1