BCL11A sustains optimal metastatic outgrowth of TNBC cells.
A, BCL11A expression in basal-like (n = 16) versus luminal (n = 43) invasive breast cancers from the Farmer data set (23) (left) and TNBC (n = 49) versus all other subtypes (n = 300) in the TCGA data set (38) (right). B, BCL11A expression in MDA-MB-231 or MDA-MB-468 cells was measured by qPCR 48 h after transient silencing. C and D, fold change of migration (C) or invasion (D) after 48 h of BCL11A silencing in the MDA-MB-231 or MDA-MB-468 cell lines. E, BCL11A expression measured by qPCR in the MDA-MB-231-FFluc cell line 2–4 passages after stable transduction with control (shNS) or BCL11A-targeted shRNA (shBCL)-expressing lentiviruses. F, bioluminescence quantitation of mice 18 days after intracardiac injection of shNS or shBCL11A stable cell lines (n = 5/group). Significance of differences was calculated in panels A–E using an unpaired t test and in panel F using a Mann-Whitney test. *, p < 0.05; ***, p < 0.001.