Fig. 3

ITGA2 silencing enhanced the anti-pancreatic cancer cells proliferation effect of TGF-β. a and b PANC-1 and AsPC-1 cells, infected with sh-ITGA2 or sh-Control, were harvested for colony formation assay (c) and CCK-8 cell proliferation assay (d). Each bar represents the mean ± SD of the three independent replicates. ***P < 0.001. c-e PANC-1 cells, infected with sh-ITGA2 or sh-Control, were subcutaneously injected into the nude mice and treated with or without TGF-β recombinant protein (10 mg/kg). The tumors tissues were collected and photographed on day 21(c). The data for tumor volume (e) and tumor mass (f) are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 5). ***P < 0.001. f and g Tumor tissues collected from nude mice were used for immunohistochemistry (f) to show the number of Ki67 positive cells (g). Each bar represents the mean ± SD of the five independent experiments. ***P < 0.001. h Protein extracted from tumors, which were collected from nude mice, were used to detected the expression of cleaved CASP3, TFCP2, and ITGA2 using Western blot analysis. i and j PANC-1 and AsPC-1 cells, infected with sh-Control or sh-ITGA2, were harvested for Annexin V-FITC/PI dual staining assay using flow cytometry (f) and the percentage of apoptotic cells was qualified (g). The data are shown as means with error bars, representing SD (n = 3). ***P < 0.001