Figure 7: WIP is strongly expressed in invasive basal-B BCC.

(a) Relationship between WIP mRNA levels and the invasive behavior of breast cancer cells (BCC). Microarray data for WIP gene expression were retrieved from two reports^35,36 and BCC lines were grouped according to their invasive potential, as described³⁵. (b) MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells were cultured on mouse peritoneal BM (4 d). After fixing in 4% PFA, samples were stained for IF for mouse type IV collagen (red), F-actin (green) and nuclei (DAPI, blue) and visualized by confocal microscopy. Bars: 25 μm. (c) Lysates of basal-B (red) and luminal cells (green) were analyzed by WB using anti-WIP, -WIRE, -N-WASP, -cortactin and -fascin antibodies, with GAPDH expression as control (not shown). Protein expression values were normalized to the highest value in each graph. Data show mean ± SD of at least three independent experiments. ns, not significant; *p < 0.05, ****p < 0.0001 by 2-way ANOVA.