Fig. 7.

Paclitaxel inhibits the invasion of cancer cells and suppresses the viability of PSCs. a Changes in cell invasion and EMT factor expression in TSs when exposed to GEM or PTX. Staining was performed on whole TSs (calcein AM and F-actin) and cryo-sections (vimentin and TGF-β1). Yellow arrowhead and asterisk indicate invadopodia and dispersed single cells, respectively. b Changes in cell morphology and fibroblast activation factors of PSCs exposed to GEM or PTX. c Changes in the expression of four EMT-related cytokines in the CM following drug treatment. d Schematic illustration of the proposed mechanism of PTX-induced inhibition of reciprocal activation and cytokine cross-talk between TSs and PSCs. Optical sections were acquired at 1.5 μm intervals and stacked into a z-projection. Drug effect was compared at the concentrations of both drugs producing 30% decrease in viability (IC₃₀) after 72 h exposure, i.e., 180 μM of GEM and 3 μM of PTX (Additional file 3: Figure S3-a). TS: tumor spheroid; GEM: gemcitabine; PTX: paclitaxel; CM: conditioned media. Data represent the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. Scale bars: 100 μm; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 as compared to the control group