Figure 6. Extracellular Mammary Epithelial Signature miRNAs are Present in Body Fluids.

A. Abundance of indicated miRNAs quantitated using qRT-PCR from the plasma of mice injected subcutaneously with indicated breast-cancer cell lines as shown in Figure S3, and normalized to miR-22, a microRNA of murine blood, but not found in the conditioned media of these cancer cell lines. B. Plot of quantities for indicated miRNAs in 3 samples each of human milk (milk), cell-free ductal lavages of breast cancer patients (lavages), extracellular (MCF7 X) and intracellular MCF7 (MCF7 C) preparations, as quantitated by the stem-loop-primer qRT-PCR approach. A: lavages of a patient with atypical ductal hyperplasia; B and C: lavages of patients with less severe epithelial hyperplasia. Inset: plot of ratios for miR-451 and miR-720. Dot shadings correspond to the same samples as labeled in Figure 6B. C. Additional miRNAs quantified in ductal lavages using the linker-ligation qRT-PCR method.