Fig. 4

Expression of EMT-related markers in PANC-1 tumor spheroids. Significant changes in the expression level of three proteins related to EMT are shown for Ki-67 (a), E-cadherin (b) and vimentin (c) upon co-culture with PSCs. Spheroids were cultured for 5 days. Optical sections were acquired at 6 μm intervals and stacked into a z-projection from which fluorescence intensity was calculated. Data are expressed as the mean ± SE of 3 independent experiments. Scale bars 20 μm, 100 μm. Student’s t-test, *p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. PSCs, pancreatic stellate cells; TS, tumor spheroids; EMT, epithelial-mesenchymal transition