NFATc4 Regulates Sox9 Gene Expression in Acinar Cell Plasticity and Pancreatic Cancer Initiation

Figure 2

NFATc4 is required for acinar-to-ductal transdifferentiation in the pancreas. (a) Brightfield microscopy reveals acinar cell morphology upon TGFα and/or CsA treatment for 5 days (scale bars indicate 100 μm). Hoechst 33342 was used to stain alive cells embedded in collagen at day 5. (b) Quantification of duct formation was performed five days after acinar cell extraction from wildtype mice. (c) qRT-PCR shows cytokeratin 19 expression in acinar cell explants upon indicated treatments for 5 days. (d)–(h) Acinar cells from wildtype mice were subjected to two different NFATc4 shRNAs or shRNA controls and were stimulated with TGFα for 5 days. (d) Brightfield microscopy was conducted to determine acinar cell morphology (scale bars indicate 100 μm). (e) Quantification of duct formation was performed on day 5 following acinar cell extraction. (f)–(h) mRNA expression levels of the indicated genes were detected on day 5 following acinar cell extraction.

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