Fig. 5

Hepatic Niche-derived exosomes quiesce cancer cells. (a) Schematic of the experimental outline in which HepN exosomes are collected and used to prime cancer cells. (b) Analysis of the miRNA content of MDA-231 that received treatment with HepN derived exosomes for 48 h versus MDA-231 treated with PBS alone shows a difference in those controlling pathways survival and locomotion of cancer cells (c) as suggested by IPA. (d) Immunofluorescence shows an upregulation of the epithelial marker E-cadherin in MDA-231 cells and membrane cohesion of E-cadherin in the MDA-468 cells. (e) This is corroborated by immunoblotting (upper are representative blots, lower is quantitation), demonstrating that the exosomes from the NPC provide most of the impetus. [Note: Immunoblot for MDA-231 E-cadherin is overexposed to detect lower levels of E-cadherin compared to the other lines.] (f) Phase microscopy demonstrates more epithelial morphology at least in the DU145 and MDA-468 cells. Representative experiments of at least three are shown