The anticoagulant and signaling pro

The anticoagulant and signaling properties of endoge- nous APC were blocked using the MPC1609 monoclonal antibody and the anticoagulant properties of endogenous APC were blocked using the MAPC1591 antibody as de- scribed previously [2,19]. A class matched antibody MCO1716 that is targeted against the keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) protein was used as negative control. The various antibodies were injected intraperitonally (200 lg in 0.9% NaCl) 30 min before cancer cell inoculation. Antibody administration was repeated at 48 and 96 h after cancer cell inoculation. Depletion of fibrinogen was achieved with an intravenous injection of venom derived ancrod (Sigma–Aldrich, St Louis, MO) which cleaves only the A-chains of fibrinogen, producing soluble degradation products that are removed from the circulation [20,21]. Ancrod was given 1.5 h before cancer cell inoculation in a dose of 0.5 U per mouse as such a dose was previously shown to efficiently deplete fibrinogen levels at [22,23].
2.5. Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis was carried out in GraphPad Prism version 4.03 supplies. Data are expressed as mean +/