Nodal Promotes the Self-Renewal of Human Colon Cancer Stem Cells via an Autocrine Manner through Smad2/3 Signaling Pathway
Figure 7
Culture and spheroid formation of CCSCs by Nodal. (a–c) Phase-contrast microscope showed the sphere formation of CCSCs cultured without Nodal (a) or with Nodal (b) or with inhibitor SB431542 (c) for 72 hours. Scale bars in (a)–(c) = 10 μm. (d–g) Immunofluorescence showed the phosphorylation of Smad2 (d) and Smad3 (e) in cells of spheres derived from human CCSCs when cultured with Nodal as well as the phosphorylation of Smad2 (f) and Smad3 (g) in cells of spheres derived from human CCSCs cultured without Nodal. Scale bars in (d), (e), and (g) = 10 μm; bar in = 20 μm. (h) Western blots revealed phos-Smad2/3 expression of in human CCSCs cultured without Nodal (lane 1) and with Nodal (lane 2). ACTB served as a loading control of total proteins.
