Figure 7.
CUL3 mediated BECN1 degradation is relevant both in patients and in tumorigenicity model of nude mice. (A) Online analyses of survival in Bladder carcinoma, Breast cancer or Ovarian cancer patients with high or low CUL3 expression. The number of surviving patients at different time points is indicated below the graphs. HR, hazard ratio. (B,C) Immunoblotting analyses of CUL3 protein expression in tumor samples and normal samples of breast cancer or ovarian cancer patients. (D,F) Expression of CUL3 of breast cancer patients correlates with poor overall survival. Scale bars: 50 μm. (E) Immunohistochemical analyses of 158 specimens from breast cancer patients using anti-BECN1 and anti-CUL3 antibodies were performed. Representative images of IHC staining of tumors form two human breast cancer patients are presented. (G) Correlation study of BECN1 and CUL3 expression in the breast cancer consisting of 158 samples. (H,I,J) The tumorigenicity model of nude mice was constructed with the indicated cells, and then the presence or absence of a visible or palpable tumor was evaluated and tumor growth was monitored every 3 d (H). After the tumor volume exceeded 800 mm3, the mice were sacrificed, and the tumors were excised to determine the weight of them (I). The expression of BECN1 or CUL3 in the MDA-MB-231 cells subcutaneously inoculated into nude mice was detected by western blot analyses (J)