Fig. 1: AR promotes VM formation in ccRCC. | Oncogene

Fig. 1: AR promotes VM formation in ccRCC.

From: Androgen receptor promotes renal cell carcinoma (RCC) vasculogenic mimicry (VM) via altering TWIST1 nonsense-mediated decay through lncRNA-TANAR

Fig. 1

a CD31/PAS and HE staining were utilized to identify the VM formation. Red arrows indicate the VM channels surrounded by tumor cells with CD31 negative staining and black arrows show the VM channel with visible blood cells inside. b VM channels per high-quality frame (HPF) in both TNM Stage II and III are higher than in Stage I. c The association between gender and VM formation in ccRCC Stage II/III patients. d The AR mRNA expression increases in ccRCC compared with normal kidney in Higgins renal microarray dataset. e TCGA DNA copy number databases (TCGA, http://tcga-data.nci.nih.gov/tcga/) show higher AR DNA copy number in ccRCC than in paired normal tissue and blood. f VM formation per HPF in AR-positive expression group (n = 32) and AR negative expression group (n = 19). Red triangles show PAS+/CD31− VM channels and black triangles show PAS+/CD31+ endothelial cell-dependent vessels. g Our statistical analysis of the correlation between AR and VM. h IF analysis revealed that in AR-positive sample VM numbers were more than in AR negative sample, laminin 5 gamma2 chain-positive channels were regarded as VM formation. Nuclei were stained with DAPI. i Matrigel-coated 2D VM tube formation assay for ethanol/10 nM DHT and DMSO/10 μM Enz treated 786O and SW839 cells, respectively. j 786O cells treated with ethanol/10 nM DHT (left panels) and SW839 cells treated with DMSO/10 μM Enz (right panels) were grown in collagen I matrix for 7 days to detect 3D VM tube formation assay. k Western blot assay for scramble control (pLKO) and knocked down AR (shAR) in SW839 cells (left panels), vector control (pWPI), or overexpressed AR (oeAR) in 786O cells (right panels). l, m Matrigel-coated 2D VM assay (l) and the collagen-based 3D VM assay (m) showed shAR in SW839 cells could suppress VM formation and oeAR in 786O cells could increase VM formation. For (i), (j), (l), and (m), quantitations are at the right, and data are expressed as mean ± S.D. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001 compared to the controls.

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