Fig. 2

The reduced lung metastasis of breast cancer in C3aR−/− mice is associated with the altered function of CAFs. a-b 4 T1 cells were orthotopically injected into WT or C3aR^−/− mice. Mice were sacrificed 16 days post tumor inoculation and the tumors were harvested. RNA-sequencing was conducted. a Gene ontology enrichment analysis of WT and C3aR^−/− 4 T1 tumors. Enrichment scatter plot in which the abscissa is the GeneRatio (the ratio of the number of differential genes on the GO pathway to the total number of differential genes). b Heat map of mRNA expression for differential extracellular matrix related genes. c qPCR analysis of mRNA levels of CAF markers (ACTA-2, PDGFRα) and functional cytokines (TGFβ, HGF, CXCL12, and VEGF-A) of CAFs, isolated from WT or C3aR^−/− tumors (*P < 0.05,**P < 0.01)