Figure 7. MUC16-Cter confers enhanced tumorigenic and metastatic properties to PC cells in vivo.

(A) Representative images are shown of nude mice whose pancreas were orthotopically implanted with 3×10⁶ MiaPaCa-2-Luc-eGFP (control, CMV9 and MUC16-Cter-F114HA transfected) or 0.25×10⁶ T3M4-Luc-eGFP (CMV9 and F114HA) cells respectively. Bioluminescence imaging performed on the indicated days shown. (B) Growth of primary and metastatic tumors were monitored by in vivo bioluminescence for the indicated days post-transplantation and are presented as mean ± s.e.m, (n=8 for MiaPaCa-2 and n=5 for T3M4 cells) per condition. Statistically significant bioluminescence was observed for MUC16 Cter-transfected compared to control cells on days 14 and 28 for MiaPaCa-2 (n=8) and days 10 and 15 for T3M4 (n=5) cells (Student's t-test, data were not adjusted for multiple comparison) (C) Increased primary tumor size at sacrifice in mice injected with F114HA transfected cells for both MiapaCa-2 and T3M4 cells. Bars represent mean ± s.e.m (Student's t-test, n=8 for MiaPaCa-2 and n=5 for T3M4). (D) The extent of metastasis to various organs was quantified as the total GFP flux (p/s). Means and s.e.m data are derived from one experiment of eight (MiaPaCa-2) and five (T3M4) mice per condition. Statistical significance was calculated using the Wilcoxon rank sum test.