Fig. 1.

ATOH8 is a shear stress responsive molecule in mimic circulating colorectal cancer cells. a, b Left, representative immunofluorescence images of ATOH8 expression in suspended LoVo and SW480 cells treated with size gradient (0, 5, 10, 20 dyn/cm²; 30 min) (a) and time gradient (10 dyn/cm²; 0, 15, 30, 60 min) (b) laminar shear stress (LSS). Right, quantification of single tumour cell fluorescence intensity in various treatment groups was presented. c-f Western blotting (WB) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis of ATOH8 expression in suspended LoVo and SW480 cells treated with size gradient (0, 5, 10, 20 dyn/cm²; 30 min) (c, d) and time gradient (10 dyn/cm²; 0, 15, 30, 60 min) (e, f) LSS. g Immunofluorescence representation images of different subtypes of CTCs in colorectal cancer patients. Red represents epithelial CTCs, green represents mesenchymal CTC, red and green represent mixed CTC, and purple shade represents different expression levels of ATOH8 in CTCs. h In colorectal cancer patients with hypertension, the number of ATOH8 (+) CTCs (CTCs with ATOH8 expression, including ATOH8 low, moderate and high expression) were higher. i Representative immunohistochemistry images of ATOH8, HK2, GLUT1 and LDHA expression in serial sections of mouse subcutaneous tumour tissue and colon cancer lung metastases. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 and ****P < 0.0001