Figure 4. Effect of CDF and anti-miR-21 on the formation of pancreatospheres, the expression of CD44 and EpCAM, and the production of VEGF and IL-6 in the CSC-like sphere cells of PC cells under hypoxic conditions.

The panels A, B, and C represent the formation of pancreatospheres, the expression of CD44 and EpCAM, and the production of VEGF and IL-6, respectively. The sphere formation assay was conducted to examine the self-renewal capacity of CSCs in PC cells, as described under the Methods section. Confocal imaging microscopy (200× magnification) was conducted to measure CSC cell surface markers CD44 and EpCAM in the MiaPaCa-2 tumor sphere cells, as described under the Methods section. The bars in the charts indicate SD of n = 3. * indicates p<0.05.