Figure 4.
Cross-talk between PDA and stromal cells mediated by TG2.
(A) Schematic of the indirect co-culture experiment. hPSCs were cultured with CM collected from AsPC1 + shCtrl and + shTG2 cells. RNA isolated from hPSCs was used for cDNA synthesis followed by gene expression analysis using the RT2 Profiler PCR Array.
(B) List of genes differentially expressed in hPSCs cultured with AsPC1 + shTG2 CM compared with + shCtrl CM.
qRT-PCR measured LAMA1 mRNA levels in hPSCs cultured with CM from AsPC1 + shCtrl or + shTG2 cells (C) and in xenografts derived from AsPC1 + shCtrl or + shTG2 cells (D, n = 4 per group). Bars represent average fold changes ± standard deviation. *P < .05.
(E) Representative IHC images of LAMA1 (laminin 1) in AsPC1 + shCtrl and + shTG2 xenografts.
(F) Spearman's rank-order correlation measured the correlation between TG2 and LAMA1 mRNA expression levels in human PDA specimens from the TCGA database (P = .002).
(G) Proliferation of AsPC1, BxPC3, and Panc1 cells cultured for 48 hours on laminin-coated or uncoated plates (bromodeoxyuridine assay). Bars represent average measurements ± SE.
(H) Relative proliferation of BxPC3 cells cultured on laminin-coated or uncoated plates and treated with gemcitabine for 96 hours (CCK8 assay). Bars represent average measurements ± SE. *P < .05.