Figure 3. Functional properties of breast cancer cells depend on the level of CD146 expression.

A: Anchorage-dependent growth was estimated by the cell number after four days of culture. B: Anchorage-independent growth was assessed by soft agar colony-forming assays as described in Materials and Methods. C, Chemotactic migration evaluated after 36 hours (CAL51 cells) or 96 hours (MCF-7 and SKBR3 cells) using uncoated Boyden chambers and 10% FCS as chemo-attractant. Migrating cells were stained with Crystal Violet solution, lysed and absorbance measured at 550 nm. Results represented as the mean ± standard error of seven independent experiments were analyzed with the Wilcoxon signed rank test. White bars: CD146^low cells, black bars: CD146^high cells.