Fig. 1

Expression of Syndecan-1 and the CSC marker CD44 in carcinoma tissues of IBC vs non-IBC patients, SUM-149 and SKBR3 cells. a Higher expression of Syndecan-1 mRNA level in carcinoma tissues of IBC (n = 13) vs non-IBC (n = 14). RQ values of mRNA expression are log2-transformed and normalized to values of normal tissues collected during reduction mammoplasty. Bars represent median with interquartile range. ** P < 0.01 as determined by Mann-Whitney U-test. b Representative fields of immunostaining (brown color) of Syndecan-1 and CD44 in paraffin embedded carcinoma tissue sections of triple negative IBC (n = 13) and non-IBC (n = 17) patients. A high density of cancer cells positive for CD44 and Syndecan-1 is observed in IBC vs non-IBC. c Pearson’s correlation between Syndecan-1 and CD44 expression in carcinoma tissues of IBC vs non-IBC. d A representative flow cytometric analysis for the expression of CD44 and Syndecan-1 in SUM-149 and SKBR3 cells. e Quantitative analysis of four subpopulations; CD44^(-)Syndecan-1^(-), CD44⁽⁺⁾Syndecan-1^(-), CD44^(-)Syndecan-1⁽⁺⁾ and CD44⁽⁺⁾Syndecan-1⁽⁺⁾. Syndecan-1 is higher expressed in the CD44⁽⁺⁾-enriched subset in SUM-149 cells than that in SKBR3 cells. Data represent mean ± SEM, n ≥ 3. ** P < 0.01, # P < 0.001 as determined by Student’s t-test. Data shown are a single experiment representative of three independent experiments