Fig. 3: Tumor-adjacent fibroblasts upregulate IL-17RB at tumor invasive margin.
A Representative IHC images of ɑSMA (red signal), IL-17RB (green signal), DAPI (blue signal) expression in FFPE samples of PDAC patients. Scale bar, 50 μm. B H score of ɑSMA expression levels in stromal regions adjacent to IL-17RB+, IL-17RB++, or IL-17RB+++ cancer regions in PDAC patients (n = 5 high-power fields per group). IL-17RB expression levels were scored by 0 (no staining), 1+ ( < 10% among cancer cells), 2+ (10 to 50% among cancer cells, and 3+ ( ≥ 50% among cancer cells). Values are expressed as mean ± SD. *, P < 0.05 (one-way ANOVA). C, D Representative IHC images of ɑSMA (red signal), IL-17RB (green signal), DAPI (blue signal) (C) and H Score of IL-17RB expression (D) in xenograft tumors collected from orthotopic injection of HPAF-II cells and mixed HPAF-II cells/fibroblasts (PSC, HSC, CAF-1, and CAF-2) in NOD/SCID/IL2Rγnull mice at day 14 after inoculation (n = 3 mice per group). Scale bar, 100 μm. Values are expressed as mean ± SD. *, P < 0.05; ***, P < 0.001 (one-way ANOVA). E, F Representative IHC images (E) and H Score (F) of IL-17RB expression in xenograft tumors collected from subcutaneous injection of HPAF-II cells and mixed HPAF-II/PSC cells in NOD/SCID/IL2Rγnull mice treated with DMSO or 2 μM all-trans retinoid acid (ATRA, R2625, Sigma) every 3 days and collected tumor samples at day 14 after inoculation (n = 6 mice per group). Scale bar, 100 μm. Values are expressed as mean ± SD. **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; ****, P < 0.0001 (one-way ANOVA).
