Fig. 5.

Effect of miR-182 silencing on tumor outgrowth and histological features of MICOL-14^tum xenografts. a Experimental layout for the study of the effects of miR-182 silencing on the ability of MICOL-14^tum cells to generate tumors upon injection into immunodeficient hosts. MICOL-14^tum cells were treated with anti-miR-182 or anti-miR-NC, and after 24 h they were s.c. injected into NOD/SCID mice. A week later, an intratumoral injection of in vivo ready anti-miR-182 and Invivofectamine was performed to sustain miR-182 knockdown. b Tumor outgrowth was measured 3 and 5 weeks after inoculation of MICOL-14^tum. The control group (anti-miR-NC treated cells) was used as a reference at each time point. Center lines of box plots show the medians; box limits indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles, as determined by R software. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. c Reduction of tumor growth and changes of the morphological features of miR-182-silenced MICOL-14^tum xenografts. H&E staining of tumor sections is shown at the bottom. Magnification 20X. The control groups (NT and anti-miR-NC treated cells) were used as a reference. d Mitotic index and grading in tumor masses obtained from anti-miR-182-treated MICOL-14^tum. Control cells (NT and anti-miR-NC) mostly grew as G2/G3 or G3 adenocarcinomas, whereas anti-miR-182 masses mainly showed a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma profile (G2 and G2/G3)