Fig. 4: Heparanase promotes tumor progression and increases cell survival via EMT, stemness, and an anti-apoptosis pathway.

A heat map and hierarchical clustering of stemness and EMT genes. B–E Expression of B Sox2, C Nanog, D Oct3/4 and E Snail in HPSE-low or HPSE-high cells following 5-FU treatment for 24 h, as determined by real-time PCR. F FACS analysis of the cell surface markers CD24 and CD44 in HPSE-low or HPSE-high following 5-FU treatment for 72 h. The provided results are from a representative experiment repeated three times. G heat map and hierarchical clustering of core apoptosis-related genes. H Expression of Bcl-2 in HPSE-low or HPSE-high cells following 5-FU treatment for 24 h, as determined by real-time PCR. I Western blot analysis and J quantification of total protein levels of Bcl-2 and cleaved PARP from HPSE-low or HPSE-high following 5-FU treatment for 24 h. All blots derive from the same experiment and were processed in parallel. For all experiments: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.