Fig. 4.

IL-17A promotes the stemness of gastric cancer cells. A Immunofluorescence imaging of CD44 (red) and SOX9 (green) in stomach tissue of WT and IL-17A KO mice. In the gastric epithelium, CD44- and SOX9-positive cells of a total of 100 cells were counted, respectively (original magnification = ×400). B Sphere forming assay. AGS cells were cultured in conditioned stem cell medium for 4 weeks and stimulated with rhIL-17A (50 ng/ml) or vehicle. Spheres containing ≥ 10 cells were counted per well of a 24-well plate. Boxed regions of left panels (original magnification = ×40) are shown at higher magnification (original magnification = X100) in the right panels. C Real-time PCR analysis of Lgr5, vimentin, fibronectin, and E-cadherin in AGS cell-derived spheres treated with rhIL-17A or vehicle. Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 versus WT or vehicle; ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 versus same genotype control