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Fig. 6 | BMC Ecology and Evolution

Fig. 6

From: Synergistic inter-clonal cooperation involving crosstalk, co-option and co-dependency can enhance the invasiveness of genetically distant cancer clones

Fig. 6

The invasive capabilities of MCF7 and MDA in the presence of CM and in co-culture. a MCF7 was treated with CM from either MCF7 or MDA, and b MDA was treated with CM from MCF7, and the numbers of invaded cells were assessed after 72 h using a transwell assay (CT – untreated control cells; constitutive invasion); representative images are also shown (dark purple patches indicate invaded cells). c The same total number of cells in monoculture (MC; MCF7 or MDA) and co-culture (CC; 1:1 ratio) were allowed to invade for 72 h (transwell assay), and the total number of invaded cells was assessed. d Comparison between the numbers of invaded cells when in monoculture (MC) and co-culture (CC) for both MCF7 and MDA; the numbers for MCF7_MC and MDA_MC represent 50% the total invaded cells in monoculture, to allow direct comparisons with the number of invaded cells of each line when in co-culture (MCF7_CC and MDA_CC) as the co-culture contained only 50% of the cells in each monoculture. To assess the total number of invaded cells, membranes were stained with 0.2% crystal violet. In co-cultures, MCF7 was stained with DiO, and the number of MDA cells was calculated by subtracting the fluorescent MCF7 cells from the total number of cells. Y axis: Number of cells per field; error bars indicate SEM (n = 3). + refers to control (CT) or monocultures, and * refers to comparisons between treatments. ns = not significant; +/* denote p < 0.05; ++ and +++ denote p < 0.01 and < 0.001, respectively

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