Fig. 7

Leptin is essential for the adipose stromal/stem cells isolated from obese women (obASC)-driven metastasis MCF7 cells in vivo. a MCF7 cells were prepared alone or co-injected with adipose stromal/stem cells isolated from lean women (lnASCs) or obASCs (1:1 ratio) or c, co-injected with control short hairpin RNA (control shRNA) obASCs or leptin shRNA obASCs into the mammary fat pad of SCID/beige mice (n = 5 mice/group). Primary tumors were allowed to expand for 36 days, and the lung and liver were harvested for histological analysis of metastasis. Metastasis index was determined by the percentage of the liver and lung occupied by metastatic lesions. b, d Representative images of liver and lung sections. Liver sections were visualized at × 40 magnification and lung sections were visualized at × 10 and × 40 magnification (inset). Scale bars represent 50 μm. Bar represents ± standard error of the mean. ***P <0.0001 relative to MCF7 xenografts; ^### P <0.0001 for comparison between MCF7 plus lnASC xenografts and MCF7 plus obASC xenografts; ^ΦΦΦ P <0.0001 for comparison between MCF7 plus control shRNA obASC xenografts and MCF7 plus leptin shRNA obASC xenografts. Arrows highlight metastatic lesions within the liver or lung