Figure 3. Cancer-initiating ability of ALDH^high cells in vitro and in vivo.

A. The features of spherical colonies derived from resultant ALDH^high cells and ALDH^low cells of ESX.

B. The number of spherical colonies from ALDH^high and ALDH^low cells of ESX. Bars represent mean±SEM (n=6). ^※※※ p<0.001, determined by the Mann-Whitney test.

C. The mRNA expression of stem/progenitor cell-related genes. RNA was isolated from freshly sorted spheroid cells (1x10⁵) on day 7. Bars represent mean±SEM. ^※ p<0.05, determined by the Mann-Whitney test.

D. The features of xenotransplanted cells in vivo. Macroscopic features of 1×10⁴ ALDH^high and ALDH^low cells of ESX in an NOD/SCID mouse at 10 weeks after xenotransplantation.

E. Tumor growth curve of ALDH^high and ALDH^low　cells of ESX. Bars represent the mean±SD (ALDH^high n= 4, ALDH^low n=2).

F. Tumorigenesis of ALDH^high and ALDH^low cells of ES cell lines in NOD/SCID mice.

G. H&E of the xenotransplanted tumors derived from ALDH^high and ALDH^lowcells of ESX (1×10⁴) (above; scale bar 50μm, below; 20μm).