Cav-1 Ablation in Pancreatic Stellate Cells Promotes Pancreatic Cancer Growth through Nrf2-Induced shh Signaling

Figure 1

Cav-1 interference in PSCs facilitates Aspc-1 pancreatic cancer cell growth. (a) Cav-1 interference efficiency in PSCs was analyzed by qRT-PCR (left). Cav-1 and α-SMA protein expression in Cav-1-knockdown PSCs was analyzed by western blot (middle and right). sh-Ctrl stands for control shRNA. sh-Cav-1 stands for Cav-1 shRNA. (b) A total of Aspc-1 cells mixed with PSCs with or without Cav-1 knockdown (sh-Ctrl or sh-Cav-1) were implanted subcutaneously into the flanks of BALB/c nude mice ( per group). Tumor volumes were determined by measuring the width and length of the tumors every week. Mean (); bars, SD; representative images of tumors are displayed in (c). (d and e) CD31 immunoblot analysis of whole-tumor lysates is shown. (f and g) CD31 immunohistochemistry of tumor sections showing that microvascular density correlates with tumor size in the Cav-1-knockdown PSC group. The results shown are the . , by the two-tailed Mann–Whitney test and by Dunnett’s multiple comparison test.

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