Figure 2.

Mechanical compression downregulated miR-9 expression in breast cancer. Compression-induced miR-9 expression of (a) CAFs and (b) breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 and BT-474). CAFs were isolated from three IDC patients. For compression, the weights of each indicated RCU were loaded on the cells for 24 h. Statistical significance was determined using a control (c) versus compressed sample t-test. All compressed samples had a statistical significance of P<0.001. (c) Fluorescent images of compression-induced miR-9 downregulation in CAFs and breast cancer cells. For detecting miR-9, the cells were compressed with one RCU for 24 h in the presence of a Cy5-conjugated miR-9-5p probe, then isolated from the alginate beads by depolymerization, fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde, smeared onto a gelatin-coated microscope slide, and then mounted with a coverslip and mounting medium. Scale bar, 200 μm. Fluorescence images were quantified by measuring red-colored area using Image J. Compression-induced precursor miR-9 expression of (d) CAFs and (e) MDA-MB-231 and BT-474. All data are represented as mean±S.D.