Figure 4.
The effects of AREG and miR-34c-5p on sphere formation and tumorigenicity. (a) AREG-augmented sphere-forming ability was suppressed by miR-34c-5p in SKOV-I6 and OVS1 cells. Left, sphere formation under the stem cell selective condition was observed on day 10 after culturing from cells transfected with the indicated plasmids. Right, sphere numbers were counted on day 10 after culturing. Histograms represent means±s.d. from three independent experiments (*P<0.05, **P<0.01). (b) AREG-augmented tumorigenicity was inhibited by miR-34c-5p. Left, SKOV-I6 parental cells were categorized into four groups according to the transfection of plasmids as indicated. 1 × 106 cells in each group were implanted into five NOD/SCID mice separately. Tumor growth was monitored. One mouse carrying the tumor with representative size of each group was sacrificed at day 32 after implantation. Right, comparison of tumor growth. All mice were sacrificed on day 49 after implantation. Each time point represents the mean±s.e. of three xenograft tumors in each group (*P<0.05).