Figure 2

FOXF2 deficiency enhances metastatic ability of BLBC cells in vivo. (A) Representative photos of the general physical condition of xenograft mice injected with MDA-MB-231-Luc-shFOXF2 or the control cells on day 22 after injection. (B) The weights of xenograft mice injected with MDA-MB-231-Luc-shFOXF2 (n = 4-10) or the control cells (n = 9-10) were measured at the indicated times. (C) Tumor volume of xenograft mice injected with MDA-MB-231-Luc-shFOXF2 (n = 3-10) or the control cells (n = 9-10) at the indicated times. (D) Bioluminescence images of primary xenograft tumor and metastatic tumor of xenograft mice injected with MDA-MB-231-Luc-shFOXF2 (n = 7) or the control cells (n = 10) on day 22 after injection (Left) and the quantitation of metastatic photon flux of the lung, liver and whole body (Right). (E) Metastatic incidence of xenograft mice injected with MDA-MB-231-Luc-shFOXF2 cells (n = 10) and the control cells (n = 10) on day 22 after injection. (F) Representative photos (Top) and count (Bottom) of visible metastatic nodules in the liver of euthanized xenograft mice injected with MDA-MB-231-Luc-shFOXF2 cells (n = 10) and the control cells (n = 10) on day 21 after injection. (G) Representative H&E stained sections of lung and liver harvested from xenograft mice. The arrows point to the metastatic foci in lung and liver. (H) Representative H&E-stained sections of primary tumor harvested from xenograft mice. The arrows indicate that the cancer cells invaded into muscle (Left) and vasculature (Right). The selected areas of muscular and vascular invasion are enlarged in the respective bottom panels. (I) Kaplan-Meier curves of the overall survival of xenograft mice (n = 10). Two independent experiments were performed. The data were expressed as mean ± SD. ^* P <0.05; ^** P <0.01. BLBC, basal-like breast cancer; H&E, hematoxylin and eosin; SD, standard deviation.