Fig. 3.

p53-deficient luminal progenitors are stimulated by HGF but fail to acquire basal-specific markers. a Microphotographs of secondary mammospheres derived from control and mutant Lu-pos cells cultured in the absence of presence of HGF for 10 days. Bar, 200 μm. b Percentages of sphere-forming cells after consecutive passages of 5000 control and mutant Lu-pos cells grown in the absence or presence of HGF. MS1 and MS2 refer to primary and secondary mammospheres. Data are the mean ± SEM of 4 distinct assays. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01. c qPCR analysis of Krt5 expression in MS1 and MS2 spheres derived from control and mutant Lu-pos cells cultured in the absence or presence of HGF. Data are the mean ± SEM of 4 separate preparations. **p ≤ 0.01. d Double K5/K8 staining of sections through secondary spheres derived from control and mutant Lu-pos cells cultured in the absence or presence of HGF. Bar, 40 μm. e Comparative expression levels of lineage-specific genes in MS2 spheres derived from control and mutant Lu-pos cells untreated or treated with HGF. qPCR data are expressed as log₂ ratios of values normalized to Gapdh. Comparator values were those obtained with untreated cells. Data are the mean ± SEM of 3 distinct preparations