Figure 6.

Macrophages attracted by CCL5 can increase cancer cell migration and regulate associated protein expression. (A–D) Co-cultured cancer cells showed enhanced migratory ability in Eca109 (A and B) and Kyse150 cells (C and D), as revealed by the transwell assays: (a) mono-cultured cancer cells (b) co-cultured cancer cells. (E and F) Morphology of Eca109 (E) and Kyse150 cancer cells (F) with different treatments: (a) mono-cultured cancer cells, (b) co-cultured cancer cells, (c) monocultured cancer cells with co-cultured Eca109 cell CM or co-cultured Kyse150 cell CM, and (d) monocultured cancer cells with co-cultured macrophage CM. (G and H) Western blot analysis showed that CCL5 expression increased after culture with macrophages, but 12-LOX, E-cadherin, integrin-β1, p-AKT, and p-p65 expression levels decreased in Eca109 and Kyse150 cells. (I and J) Co-culture with macrophages increased CCL5 expression but decreased ALOX12, E-cadherin, and integrin-β1 expression at the mRNA level in cancer cells. Experimental data were obtained from three independent tests. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.

Abbreviations: CM, conditioned media; ns, no significance.