Figure 3

Figure 3

BAK-R cells exhibit increased invasion and metastasis in transwell invasion and zebrafish assays, compared to BAK-P (b,c left panels), while CD133 siRNA knockdown reduces CD133 and MMP2 expression (a) and inhibits invasion (b,c right panels) *** represent p < 0.001. (c) Transwell cell invasion assays were performed for 48 h. Cells that have invaded to the bottom of the transwell were stained with toluidine blue for imaging. Percentage of cell invasion was quantified and presented as a bar graph. Zebrafish were injected with the BAK-P (d) and BAK-R cells alone (e) or in combination (f), and imaged at day 1 (left panels) and day 5 (right panels). Quantification revealed that whereas parental cells showed no metastasis (g), reprogrammed CD133(+) BAK-R cells grafted alone (h), or in combination with parental BAK-P cells (i), exhibited significant metastasis to the tail (j).