Fig. 3

Tumour cells exhibit increased growth and invasion capacities upon coculture with adipocytes. Cancer-associated adipocyte conditioned medium (CA-CM) was collected from adipocytes cultivated with MCF-7 or MDA-MB-231 cells for 3 days, and adipocyte-conditioned medium (AD-CM) and cancer cell-conditioned medium were collected from cells cultivated alone under similar conditions for 3 days as controls. All media contained 10% FBS. a Cell viability was measured by MTT assay at 24, 48 and 72 h. b Wound healing assays were used to examine the effects of CA-CM on cell motility. The migration rate correlates with cell migration ability. c Tumour cells were cultivated in cancer cell-conditioned medium, AD-CM, or CA-CM. After 24 h, the number of cells penetrating the membrane in Transwell invasion assays was analysed. d E-cadherin protein expression was analysed by western blot in extracts from tumour cells cocultivated in the presence or absence of adipocytes (3 days). The bars represent the mean ± SD of triplicate datapoints (n = 3). * P < 0.05 versus control values