Fig. 7

Fucosyltransferase 8 (FUT8) knockdown inhibited the metastatic ability of breast cancer cells in vivo. a FUT8 knockdown did not affect xenograft tumor growth of breast cancer cells in vivo. Tumor volumes were measured weekly in nude mice mammary fat pads injected with 4T1 control-short hairpin RNA (shRNA) cells or two independent FUT8-shRNA (#1 and #2) stable cell lines. Data are mean ± SD (n = 8 in each group). Right panel shows representative images of FUT8 expression (brown) in tumor sections from each group. Scale bar = 10 μm. b FUT8 knockdown reduced the lung metastasis of the 4T1 tumor model. Number of lung metastatic nodules in nude mice with mammary fat pad injection of 4T1 control-shRNA cells or FUT8-shRNA stable cell lines was counted and is displayed by box-whisker plot (left). Data are median (horizontal line), upper and lower quartiles (box edges) and ranges (whiskers) (n = 8 in each group). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01 compared with control-shRNA. Representative images of H&E-stained lung sections from each group are shown (right). Arrowheads mark metastatic nodules in the lung. Scale bar = 200 μm