Fig. 1

miR-214 expression correlates with stroma components in human tumors and it is highly expressed in stroma fibroblasts. A-B Significant correlations between miR-214 (positive) and miR-148b (negative) expression and stroma/immune cell composition in TCGA-SKCM (A) and TCGA-BRCA (B), for metastasis or primary samples, are presented as “scores”, based on 4 (A) or 7 (B) different evaluation methods, in plots and heatmaps (Red = positive; white/blue = negative; grey = no correlation). Non significant relationships: p-value > 0.05. Estimates: EDec Immune/Stromal = Epigenomic Deconvolution of stromal/immune percentage [38]; Immune Score = ssGSEA based on gene expression profiles of 141 immune genes [39]; LUMP = Leukocytes Unmethylation for Purity, which averages 44 non-methylated immune-specific CpG sites [40]; Stromal score = ssGSEA based on gene expression profiles of 141 stromal genes [39]; IHC = estimated by image analysis of haematoxylin and eosin stained slides produced by the Nationwide Children's Hospital Biospecimen Core Resource [41]; ABSOLUTE = based on somatic copy-number data [42]. C miR-214 expression levels in murine tumor, stroma and immune cells as indicated and evaluated by qRT-PCR analysis. D GFP⁺ B16-F10 cells were subcutaneously injected into miR-214^wt and miR-214^over syngenic mice to generate tumors. 15 days later, mice were sacrificed, transplants dissected and tumor/stroma cells separated by FACS sorting. miR-214 expression levels were measured in GFP.⁺ B16-F10 cells before the injection (culture) or FACS sorted from subcutaneous tumors (sorted), in the remaining stroma cells, after the sorting (stroma) and in the total tumor mass (tot tumor) by qRT-PCR analysis, 3 animals per group (n = 3). C-D Results are represented as fold changes (mean ± SD of triplicates) relative to the median, normalized on U6. Two independent experiments were performed and representative results are shown. MEFs = murine embryo fibroblasts; CAFs = cancer associated fibroblasts; TAMs = Tumor Associated Macrophages; SD = standard deviation. H&E = Haematoxylin & Eosin; *P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01; ***P ≤ 0.001