Figure 1.
AXL is upregulated and ligand-independently activated in breast cancer stem cells. A–B, Immunoblot showing expression of AXL in mouse BCSCs (ANVs) and human breast cancer cell lines. C, Immunoblot of phospho-Akt, Akt, Axl in ANVs and MMC treated with or without AXL ligand Gas6. β-actin is shown as a loading control. D, Treatment of ANV5 cells with increasing doses of Gas6 shows no effect on the activation status of AXL. E, RT-PCR results of endogenous AXL and Gas6 expression in ANV and MMC cells. GAPDH is a RNA loading control. The results of the experiments in this figure were repeated two times with similar results.