Fig. 1

Adipose stromal/stem cells (ASCs) isolated from obese women (obASCs) enhance breast cancer cell (BCC) proliferation. a Estrogen receptor positive BCCs were co-cultured (CC) with ASCs isolated from lean women (lnASCs) (n = 6 donors) or obASCs (n = 6 donors) for 7 days and FACS performed based on green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression. BCCs sorted by FACS were counted and data are shown relative to the number of cells cultured alone. b RNA was collected from MCF7 cells, T47D cells, ZR75 cells, control short hairpin RNA (control shRNA) lnASCs, and control shRNA obASCs and analyzed for aromatase expression by quantitative RT-PCR. Data were normalized to the β-actin expression. c Conditioned media (CM) were collected from control shRNA lnASCs or control shRNA obASCs treated with vehicle or letrozole. BCCs were cultured in the CM for 7 days and the number of GFP⁺ BCCs was counted. d CM were collected from control shRNA lnASCs and control shRNA obASCs treated with vehicle or leptin neutralizing antibody. BCCs were cultured in the CM for 7 days and the number of GFP⁺ BCCs was counted. Bar represents ± standard error of the mean. *P <0.05, **P <0.01, ***P <0.001, relative to no co-culture BCCs; ^# P <0.05, ^## P <0.01 between BCCs co-cultured with lnASCs and obASCs; ^ψψψ P <0.001 relative to lnASCs and obASCs; ^ΦΦΦ P <0.001 between control shRNA obASCs treated with vehicle and leptin neutralizing antibody