Fig. 7.

LincK promoted tumorigenesis, tumor growth, and metastasis in nude mice. a, b MCF-7 cells with LincK knockdown, overexpression, and the corresponding controls (stably transduced with lentivirus vectors) were mixed with hAD-MSCs at the ratio of 5:1 and inoculated subcutaneously into female nude mice. Tumorigenesis (a) and tumor growth (b) were examined by subcutaneous xenograft assay in nude mice. Tumor sizes were measured every week for 5 weeks; volumes (in cubic millimeters) were calculated according to the equation: width² × length ×  0.5. *p < 0.05, Student’s t test. c, d MDA-MB-231 cells with LincK knockdown or control were injected intravenously into immunodeficiency mice. c Lung nodules at week 7 were analyzed as the number of nodules per mouse. **p < 0.01, Student’s t test. d Representative HE staining of lung sections was shown. Black arrowheads denoted representative nodules. Scale, 1000 μm