Fig. 6.

Breast cancer case series. (A) Frozen samples from a consecutive breast cancer case series were analyzed for Trop-2 expression and cleavage by Western blotting. Western blot lanes bear the original patient number in the case series. The latin “bis” indication refers to a second sampling of the same tumor case, upon local relapse. Red arrow: cleaved Trop-2. Ponceau red staining, control of protein loading. MW markers are indicated. The bottom right panel shows a Western blotting analysis of Trop-2 expression and cleavage in normal breast tissue samples from control individuals. (B) Distribution of the fraction of cleaved Trop-2 molecules in individual breast cancer samples, ordered from low to high Trop-2 cleavage. (C) Western blotting analysis of ADAM10 expression and of Trop-2 cleavage in samples from breast cancer and normal breast tissues. The samples were pooled from the individual cases shown in the panel A as based on the extent of Trop-2 cleavage. The pools are as follows: A = 5+22+78+109+187; B = 113+131+174+187+204; C = 78+131+198+231+233; D = 9+18+24+47+61; E = 65+67+70+73+88; F = 95+103+106+115+122; G = 2+8+12; H = 3+7+9. ADAM10 was detected as bands at 55-50 kDa, designated as precursor and activated forms of the protein. Red arrow: presence/absence of Trop-2 cleavage at R87-T88. (Color version of figure is available online.)