Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 12 pp 3969—3992

AGTR1 promotes lymph node metastasis in breast cancer by upregulating CXCR4/SDF-1α and inducing cell migration and invasion

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Figure 2. Losartan reduces tumor growth and lymph node metastasis through CXCR4/SDF-1α in vivo. (A) and (B) MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 cells were injected into the fourth right mammary fat pad of nude mice and Balb/c mice. Two weeks after the injection, the tumor size was measured every 3 days. ** P<0.01. (C) BLI of MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 cells diluted in triplet wells from 4000 to 500 cells/well. Quantitative analysis of photon flux after adding luciferin substrate. (D) Representative images of MDA-MB-231 tumors and (E) lymph nodes for BLI analysis. Signal intensity was measured as photon flux (photons/second) and coded to a color scale. (F) Representative 4T1 tumor and (G) lymph node signal intensities were shown by BLI. The number of mice in each group was 8, and the total number of LN was 32. (H) and (I) Quantification of the signal intensities of tumors and lymph nodes and rates of lymph node metastasis in MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 tumors are shown below. * P<0.05. (J) Representative xenograft samples and lymph nodes images in different groups. Tissues were subjected to immunohistochemical staining with anti-CXCR4 or anti-SDF-1α. (K) HSCORE of CXCR4 and SDF-1α protein expression in mice tumor tissues and lymph nodes. * P<0.05, *** P<0.001. (L) Relative amount of SDF-1α mRNA in lymph node from different groups. * P<0.05.