Figure 4.
Effect of NG2 knockdown on growth of U87MG gliomas. Cohorts of 5 NOD-SCID mice were innoculated subcutaneously with 5 × 106 U87MG glioma cells that had been transduced with lentivirus (LV) for expression of either control shRNA or NG2 shRNA. NG2 expression was reduced by 75% in the NG2 shRNA group compared to the control shRNA group. One cohort of mice from each tumor group also received IP injections of TNFα (150 μg/kg) once daily on days 3–10 following tumor cell injections. A. Final tumor sizes in the 4 cohorts of mice. B. Kinetics of tumor growth in the 4 cohorts of mice. NG2 knockdown significantly slows U87MG tumor growth, likely due to loss of NG2-dependent cell proliferation. The NG2 knockdown tumors exhibit an additional sensitivity to treatment with TNFα (lacking in the control tumors) due to loss of NG2 pro-survival effects. Data taken from [3].