Fig. 6

Adipose stromal/stem cells isolated from obese women (obASC)-derived leptin induces SERPINE1 and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2) expression in MCF7 xenografts. MCF7 cells were prepared alone or co-injected with control short hairpin RNA (control shRNA) obASCs or leptin shRNA obASCs (1:1 ratio) into the mammary fat pad of SCID/beige mice (n = 5 mice/group). After 36 days, tumors were harvested for analysis. a Total cellular RNA was isolated from tumors and analyzed for the expression of SERPINE1, MMP-2, and IL-6. b Western blot analysis of tumor lysate. A total of 20 μg of protein was separated by SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions, blotted, and probed with indicated antibodies. Blots were stripped and probed with actin antibody for normalization. c Densitometry analysis of SERPINE1 and MMP2 bands, normalized to actin. d Representative images of SERPINE1 staining and MMP-2 staining of tumor sections visualized at × 10 and × 40 magnification (inset). Scale bar represents 50 μm. Bar represents ± SD. *P <0.05, **P <0.01, ***P <0.0001 relative to MCF7 xenografts; ^Φ P <0.05, ^ΦΦ P <0.01, ^ΦΦΦ P <0.0001 between MCF7 plus control shRNA obASC xenografts and MCF7 plus leptin shRNA obASC xenografts