Fig. 1.

Gene expression and secretion of proteins involved in angiogenesis and invasion. Normalized gene expression and protein secretion rate of VEGF-A (a), IL-8 (b), and MMP-2 (c) and normalized gene expression of MMP-9 (d) in the A-07, D-12, R-18, and U-25 lines, and examples of immunohistochemical preparations of the melanoma lines stained for MMP-2 or MMP-9 (e). Gene expression was measured with quantitative PCR and was normalized to the mean expression of two housekeeping genes (GAPDH and ACTB). Protein secretion rates were measured with ELISA. Columns and bars represent the mean ± SEM of three (PCR) or five (ELISA) independent experiments