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Fig. 5 | Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research

Fig. 5

From: USP13 functions as a tumor suppressor by blocking the NF-kB-mediated PTEN downregulation in human bladder cancer

Fig. 5

Re-expression of USP13 or PTEN partially rescued the tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. a. In vivo tumor lumps of xenograft mouse models composed of 4 types of UM-UC-3 cells: empty vector, NF-kB overexpression, NF-kB overexpression with USP13 re-expression, NF-kB overexpression with PTEN re-expression. Mice were sacrificed at the 50th day after injection and each tumor lump was removed from the body. b. The tumor growth curves of in vivo tumor volumes. Data are shown as mean ± s.d. of the tumor volumes, n = 5, *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 (ANOVA). c. The mean tumor weight of each group. Data are shown as mean ± s.d. of the tumor weights, n = 5. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (ANOVA). d. IHC staining of NF-kB, USP13 and PTEN in xenograft tumors. The IHC scores were evaluated using a numerical score based on the number of positive cells in three different fields in each section, with a score of 0 indicating no positive cells; 1 indicating 10% positive cells; 2 indicating 10–50% positive cells; and 3 indicating 450% positive cells6. One section was evaluated for each sample, 5 samples/group. The IHC score for NF-kB p65, USP13 or PTEN was shown in e, f and g, respectively (*P < 0.05, Student’s t-test). h. Images of the lungs with metastatic nodules removed from the mice (upper panel). The lung metastasis nude mice model was conducted by injecting four types of cells (indicated in a) into the nude mice via the tail vein. Lungs were subjected to hematoxylin-eosin staining, and the numbers of metastatic nodules were captured and counted under the microscope (h: lower panel, i). The number of lung metastases per 5 sections for each group was conducted for statistical analysis (*P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01, ANOVA)

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