Fig. 1

Hectd3 knockout inhibits inflammation-induced tumor metastasis in mice.a A comparison of the incidence of lung metastases in WT (n = 9) versus Hectd3^−/− (n = 11) mice with an FVB genetic background. PyMT-induced tumor cells were orthotopically injected into the fat pad of both groups of mice (5 × 10⁵ cells per mouse). Primary tumors were removed 20 days later. Mice were sacrificed after 2 months, and the incidence of lung metastasis was recorded. b PyMT-induced breast tumor cells were inoculated as described above. The incidence of heart metastasis (left), representative heart metastasis nodule images and H&E staining (right) are shown. c 4T1-Luc2 cells were injected orthotopically into the fourth pair of fat pads of WT (n = 24) and Hectd3^−/− (n = 27) BALB/c mice (bilateral, 1 × 10⁵ cells per point). Eleven days after transplantation (Day -1), primary tumors were imaged using a bioluminescent IVIS system (upper). Twelve days after transplantation (Day 0), primary tumors were removed, then tumor metastasis was monitored weekly by imaging and representative bioluminescence images are shown (lower). d A comparison of the incidence of metastases in WT versus Hectd3^−/− mice from panel c. e Kaplan–Meier survival curves of WT (n = 24) and Hectd3^−/− (n = 27) mice which 4T1-Luc2 primary tumors were removed 12 days after transplantation. f WT and Hectd3^−/− FVB mice were intravenously injected with or without LPS (1 mg/kg). 5 h later, PyMT-induced breast tumor cells were injected through the tail vein (2 × 10⁵ cells per mouse). Each group contained 9–10 mice, and mice were sacrificed 20 days after injection of tumor cells. The graph shows the number of pulmonary metastasis nodules in each group of mice. g The weight of the whole lung with metastatic nodules in each group of mice from panel f. h Representative lung metastasis nodule images and corresponding H&E staining of the lungs in different groups of mice from panel f. i Kaplan–Meier survival curves of WT (n = 6) mice and Hectd3^−/− (n = 6) mice pretreated with LPS and transplanted with PyMT-induced breast tumor cells through tail vein. Data represent three independent experiments for all of the above experiSments. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM, and statistics were calculated using the Chi-square test for a, b and d, two-way ANOVA for f, g, and log-rank test for e and i. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; n.s., not significant. Scale bars are 500 μm for b and 2 mm for h