Fig. 1.

PDA cells reprogram macrophages in TME through DNA methylation. a Tumor and macrophage co-culture experimental schema. b Nqo-1 and Aldh1a3 methylation was examined by methylation-specific PCR (MSP) in mouse BMDMs after co-culturing with KPC PDA cells. *P < 0.05 (paired t test). c The schema of the candidate gene selection process. d Expression of the key genes in glucose metabolism and OXPHOS pathway in mouse BMDMs after co-culturing with KPC cells. The mRNA expression of these genes was measured by RT-PCR and β-actin was used for normalization. e, f Nqo-1 and Aldh1a3 methylation after pretreating BMDMs with DAC. *P < 0.05 (d, e, f, Mann–Whitney U test). g Methylation of Nqo-1 and Aldh1a3 in TAMs, CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells from primary PDA and BMDMs (consider as M0 macrophages) of the same KPC mice, and BMDMs after co-culturing with KPC cells. *P < 0.05 (ANOVA). Data are means ± SEM from technical duplicates and representative of two experiments