Fig. 5

HIF-2α overexpression increases tumorigenicity and resistance to PTX by activating the Wnt and Notch pathways in vivo. a Green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression was detected in xenograft mice stably transfected with NC-cDNA and HIF-2α-cDNA MCF7 cells by small animal imaging. b HIF-2α expression was measured by western blot in xenograft tumor tissues. c Average tumor volumes were measured in xenograft mice every two days. d Images of resected MCF7 tumor tissues and average tumor weight at the end of indicated treatment. e TUNEL measurement of apoptosis in xenograft mice using fluorescent staining after treatment with or without PTX. Red fluorescence  cells were considered positive (magnification × 600). Bar standards are 20 μm. f Expression of Wnt pathway-related proteins was detected by western blot in different treatment groups. g Expression of Notch pathway-related proteins was detected by western blot in different treatment groups. h Expression of c-Myc, OCT4 and Nanog was determined by western blot in different treatment groups. i Correlation analysis of the EPAS1 and Wnt, Notch pathway key factors in TCGA dataset. AXIN2, NOTCH1 and MYC display significant positive correlation with EPAS1 expression (p < 0.0001) in TCGA datasets. Data are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 6), ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01, ^***P < 0.0001 compared with the NC-cDNA group. ^##P < 0.01 compared with the NC-cDNA + PTX group