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Role of macrophages in circulating prostate cancer cells studied by in vivo flow cytometry

Macrophages appear to be directly involved in cancer progression and metastasis. However, the role of macrophages in influencing tumor metastasis has not been fully understood. Here, we have used an emerging technique, namely in vivo flow cytometry (IVFC) to study the depletion kinetics of circulating prostate cancer cells in mice and how depletion of macrophages by the liposome-encapsulated clodronate affects the depletion kinetics. Our results show different depletion kinetics of PC-3 prostate cancer cells between macrophage-deficient group and the control group. The number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in macrophage-deficient group decreases in a slower manner compared to the control mice group. The differences in depletion kinetics indicate that the absence of macrophages might facilitate the stay of prostate tumor cells in circulation. We speculate that macrophages might be able to arrest, phagocytose and digest PC-3 cancer cells. Therefore, the phagocytosis may mainly contribute to the differences in depletion kinetics. The developed methods here would be useful to study the relationship between macrophages and cancer metastasis in small animal tumor model.