Figure 1.

CTC cultures successfully propagated breast epithelial cells. (a) Visual workflow of CTC processing. (b) Receptor status of cultured CTCs, based on clinical data. (c) Representative phase images (20×) taken after 30 days in culture. Within CTC images, red arrows indicate CTCs and white arrows indicate the adherent leukocyte cells on the top of which CTCs attach and expand. (d) RT-PCR was used to confirm that RNA isolated from CTCs was of breast and epithelial origin prior to RNA-seq analysis. (e) A box and whisker plot depicting CD45 relative expression following qPCR amplification. CD45 (-) samples were observed to have decreased propagation and did not generate enough high-quality RNA for RNA-sequencing analysis (CTCs 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 11).