Figure 6.

ATRX knock-down allows immune escape of sarcomas via non-recruitment of mast cells. (A) Tumor growth rate analysis of K7M2 ATRX^CT or K7M2 ATRX^KD cells xenografted under the skin of NSG or Balb/c mice (n = 15 in each group). (B) Tumor-free survival curves of K7M2 ATRX^CT or ATRX^KD tumors in immunodeficient NSG mice and immunocompetent Balb/c mice (n = 15 mice for each condition) using Kaplan-Meier method. (C) Comparison of RNA expression in log2 (FPKM + 1) of K7M2 ATRX^KD tumors versus K7M2 ATRX^CT tumors developed in immunocompetent mice (n = 4 each) showing 23 and 37 significantly up- and down-expressed genes in K7M2 ATRX^KD tumors, respectively. (D) Links between down-expressed genes in K7M2 ATRX^KD tumors found by the STRING Database showing one cluster with genes involved in mast cells via MCL clustering. (E) Immunostaining of mast cells by targeting tryptase in K7M2 ATRX^CT and K7M2 ATRX^KD tumor tissues with nucleus marked with DAPI. On the right, percent of mast cells in the two conditions. (F) TPSB2 mRNA expression in log2 (FPKM + 1) according to ATRX status in cohort 1. (G) TPSB2 mRNA expression in log2 (FPKM + 1) according to ATRX localization in cohort 1. * p ≤ 0.05, p-value was calculated with Mantel-Cox test for (B) and unpaired t-test for (E–G).