Figure 2

CXCR4⁺CD133⁺ ovarian cancer cells show stem cell properties.

(A) For in vitro and in vivo experiments, cells were double-stained for CD133 and CXCR4. Four distinct phenotypic subpopulations, specifically CD133⁻CXCR4⁻, CD133⁻CXCR4⁺, CD133⁺CXCR4⁻ and CD133⁺CXCR4⁺, were isolated. (B) Sphere formation capacity of sorted population in OVCAR-3, OVCAR-4 and OVCAR-5 cells. Tumor spheroids under non-differentiating and non-adherent conditions are known to contain a greater number of CSCs, images of OVCAR-5 sphere as representative of anchorage-independent growth and tumor spheroid formation was reported. (Left side, B); Bar graph depicting number of spheres observed in sorted cells culture (Right side, B); QPCR analysis of pluripotency-associated genes (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, NANOG) in OVCAR-5 sorted populations (C). The data represent the mean ± SD. Asterisk (*) represents p values < 0.05; double asterisk (**) represents p values < 0.001.