Figure 4

Forced expression of TFF3 in MCF7 cells stimulates metastatic seeding. (A) Metastatic nodules per lung of BALB/c nude mice (n = 6 each group) that received lateral tail vein injection of either MCF7-vector or MCF7-TFF3 cells. (B) Total RNA was isolated from lung and liver tissue of individual mice that received lateral tail vein injection of either MCF7-vector or MCF7-TFF3 cells. qPCR was performed to measure the mRNA expression of human hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (hHPRT) in the lung and liver of mice. Mouse glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (mgapdh) was used as an internal control. The relative expression of hHPRT vs mgapdh was calculated. (C) Illustrative haematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained sections of lungs from mice that received lateral tail vein injection of MCF7-vector or MCF7-TFF3 cells. Arrow indicates metastatic nodules. Statistical significance was assessed by using an unpaired two-tailed Student's t test (P <0.05 was considered as significant) using GraphPad Prism 5. Columns are the mean of triplicate experiments; bars, ± SD. ^**P <0.001, ^*P <0.05.