Figure 3.

UNC5C suppresses the growth and metastasis of breast cancer in vivo. For the tumor growth assay, (A) SK-BR-3 cells (n=5) or (B) MDA-MB-231 cells (n=4) were inoculated subcutaneously in the right flanks of 4-week-old nude BALB/c mice. The volume of the resulting tumors was measured every 3 or 4 days according to the formula: Volume = width² × length × 0.52. One month later, the resulting tumors were completely dissected and weighed. The maximum diameter of the tumor that formed at the end of the experiments was 9.2 mm in the SK-UNC5C-Ctrl group, 12.4 mm in the SK-UNC5C-shRNA1 group, 12.3 mm in the SK-UNC5C-shRNA2 group, 12.2 mm in the MDA-MB-231-GFP group and 10.2 mm in the MDA-MB-231-Unc5C group. (C) For tumor metastasis, SK-BR-3 cells were injected intravenously. Metastatic tumor nodules in all lung lobes were photographed under a fluorescence microscope and counted in the paraffin sections. Magnification of upper panels, ×40. Magnification of lower panels, ×200. The data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. ^*P<0.05, ^**P<0.01, ^****P<0.0001 vs. UNC5C-shCtrl or MDA-GFP. UNC5C, Unc-5 Netrin Receptor C; sh, short hairpin; Ctrl, control.