Fig. 1

A dichotomous role for PC in pulmonary versus primary tumors. A Immunoblot analyses of control (scram) and PC-depleted (shPC25 and shPC28) E0771 cells probed for PC and β-tubulin. B Expression of PC in control and PC-depleted E0771 cells was quantified by qPCR (n = 3/group). C Experimental timeline of E0771 injected C57BL6/J mice. Mice were injected via the lateral tail vein with 10⁶ E0771 cells. Progression of pulmonary tumors was tracked by bioluminescence imaging every other day for 28 days. D Lungs from mice injected with control and PC-depleted E0771 cells. E Pulmonary luminescence of the 3 groups (5/group) of mice between Day 8 and 28 following tail vein inoculation. F H&E staining of lung histological sections (n = 3/group). G Lung weight and H pulmonary tumor nodule counts at euthanasia (5/group). I Experimental timeline where 5 × 10⁵ control and PC-depleted E0771 cells were orthotopically transplanted onto the mammary fat pads of C57BL6/J mice (5/group). After 4 weeks, primary tumors were removed. Progression of pulmonary metastasis was tracked by bioluminescence imaging for another 10 weeks and animals were sacrificed. J Primary tumor volume measurements of control and PC-depleted tumors (n = 4/group). K Images and weights of lungs at euthanasia (n = 4/group). Statistical significance determined by one-way ANOVA with Tukey's post-hoc test