Figure 2: The effects of profilins on lung cancer growth, invasion and metastasis.

(a) The stable Pfns-overexpressing or knockdown A549 cell lines were prepared using a lentiviral system. Western blotting result of three experiments is shown. (b,c) Effects of Pfns on lung cancer growth as determined by tumour volume and tumour weight. Student’s t-test is used for statistical analysis of vector versus Pfn2, ANOVA test for statistic comparison of vector, shPfn2-1 and shPfn2-2; the P values are shown in the figure. (d) The relative circulating tumour cell (CTC) concentration was detected 6 weeks after tumour transplantation. Student’s t-test is used for statistical analysis of vector versus Pfn2, and ANOVA test for comparison of other groups, the P values are shown in the figure. (e) The relative CTC concentration was detected 2 months after tail-vein injection. Student’s t-test is used for statistical analysis, the P values are shown in the figure. (f–i) The effect of Pfn on lung and liver metastasis was determined by the number of metastatic nodules, morphology and H&E staining. Arrows indicate exemplary loci of metastasis. Scale bar, 200 μm. All error bars in the figure represent the means±s.d. of three independent experiments (five mice per group for all groups). ANOVA, analysis of variance; H&E, haematoxylin and eosin.