Fig. 4From: Leptin produced by obese adipose stromal/stem cells enhances proliferation and metastasis of estrogen receptor positive breast cancersLeptin inhibition reduces the expression of key regulatory genes involved in invasion and metastasis. Breast cancer cells (BCCs) were co-cultured CC with adipose stromal/stem cells isolated from lean women (lnASCs) or adipose stromal/stem cells isolated from obese women (obASCs) stably transfected with a control short hairpin RNA (control shRNA) or leptin shRNA. After 7 days, co-cultured cells were sorted by FACS and BCCs were collected for total RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis. Genes involved in invasion and metastasis were assessed. Bar represents ± standard error of the mean. *P <0.05, ***P <0.001 relative to BCCs cultured alone; ### P <0.01 for comparison between BCCs after co-culture with control shRNA lnASCs and control shRNA obASCs; ΦΦΦ P <0.001 for comparison between BCCs after co-culture with control shRNA obASCs and leptin shRNA obASCs. MMP matrix metalloproteinaseBack to article page