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Figure 4 | Breast Cancer Research

Figure 4

From: Mesenchymal precursor cells maintain the differentiation and proliferation potentials of breast epithelial cells

Figure 4

Transforming growth factor (TGF)β signaling is active in mesenchymal cells from co-cultures and overexpression of inhibin β A (INHBA) in human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) increases colony formation potential of epithelial cells. (A) Heat maps derived from unsupervised hierarchical clustering of gene expression data of hAMSCs (n = 3) and primary human breast epithelial cells (PHBECs) (n = 3) grown as mono- or co-cultures for 21 to 30 days. Upregulated (red); downregulated (green); average expression (black). (B) Heat maps representing the top 50 upregulated genes specific for hAMSCs in monoculture (MCS) or co-cultures (CCS) compared with PHBECs in monocultures (MCE) or co-cultures (CCE) (left) and when compared among themselves (right). Upregulated (red); downregulated (blue); average expression (white). (C) Immunoblots with control and INHBA-overexpressing hAMSC lysates as indicated. Cells were grown on Primaria plates for 7 days. (D) Representative phase contrast pictures of colonies formed by single cells from 30-day-old PHBEC monocultures or PHBEC/hAMSC co-cultures. Co-cultures consisted of either control hAMSC or hAMSC overexpressing INHBA. Scale bar 50 μm. (E) Bar graph showing the percentage of colonies formed by single cells derived from ex vivo co-cultures of PHBECs and co-cultured with either control hAMSCs or hAMSCs overexpressing INHBA (INHBA o.e.). Representative pictures of crystal violet stained colonies (below).

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