Fig. 7From: LINC00909 up-regulates pluripotency factors and promotes cancer stemness and metastasis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma by targeting SMAD4Overexpression of LINC00909 markedly increases tumor burden and promotes spleen metastasis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). (A, B) Overall appearance of the subcutaneous xenograft models in the Vector and LINC00909-OE groups (n = 5 per group). (C) Tumor volume curves of the subcutaneous xenografts in the PANC-1/Vector and PANC-1/LINC00909-OE groups (n = 5). Tumor volume was measured once every 10 days. (D) Tumor weights (n = 5). (E) Representative appearance of orthotopic xenograft models in the Vector and LINC00909-OE groups (red arrow: orthotopic pancreatic tumor; blue arrow: metastasis in the spleen). (F) The spleen metastasis amount in the orthotopic xenograft model was computed for the indicated group (n = 6 per group). (G) Pie chart revealing the percentage of mice with spleen metastasis in these two groups. (H) H&E staining of the spleen section. (I) IHC staining of SMAD4, KLF4, c-Myc, and c-JUN in orthotopic pancreatic tumors obtained from the control and LINC00909-OE groups. All *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. P-values were assessed using ANOVA and two-tailed t-tests, followed by Dunnett’s tests for multiple comparisons in (C, D, and F)Back to article page