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Fig. 3 | Breast Cancer Research

Fig. 3

From: Sortilin inhibition limits secretion-induced progranulin-dependent breast cancer progression and cancer stem cell expansion

Fig. 3

Single-cell analyses of breast cancer cells illustrating dedifferentiation of sortilin-positive cells after progranulin treatment. a PCA illustrating the separation of gene clusters based on transcriptional expression. SORT1 and GRN clustered with differentiation (blue) and proliferation gene clusters (yellow) while CSC-like transcripts cluster separately (purple). b The analysis of the transcriptional associations of single-cell gene expression with each cell represented by a circle of vehicle- and progranulin-treated MCF7 cells only including SORT1-positive cells. Individual cells are indicated in the top PCA score plot and the fractions of cells in relation to differentiation and CSC-like properties are summarised in the middle panel whereas the PCA loading plot and clustering for PC1 and PC2 are shown in the bottom panel. **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 as calculated by Fisher’s exact test. c MKI67 (% positive cells) expression assessment in relation to the expression of EPCAM in SORT1-positive single cells treated with vehicle control or progranulin. **p < 0.01 as calculated by Fisher’s exact test. d Correlation analyses between single-cell transcripts in vehicle- or progranulin-treated MCF7 cells. Black line represents a significant (p < 0.01) positive association and a dotted line indicates a significant (p < 0.01) negative association. Correlation co-efficient is calculated by Spearman’s correlation. e CD24low (left) and CD24high (right) cells were treated with vehicle or progranulin and bulk expression of selected transcripts were measured by qPCR and represented as relative gene expression compared to vehicle treated cells (n = 3). *p < 0.05 as calculated by a Student’s t test. CSC cancer stem cell

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