Fig. 5
From: Tumor-induced loss of mural Connexin 43 gap junction activity promotes endothelial proliferation
Breast tumor cells inhibit GJ activity and release endothelial cells from mural cell-induced growth inhibition in a Cx43-dependent manner. a. vSMC nucleofected with control vector or vector overexpressing wild-type Cx43 were treated with control media (‘Mock’) or MDA-MB-231 conditioned media (‘231 CM’), loaded with calcein-AM, and plated onto HUVEC labeled with PHK26. Dye transfer from vSMC to HUVEC was quantified using flow cytometry (*p < 0.05; ns, not significant). Data represent the mean+/− s.e.m. of three experiments performed in triplicate. b. vSMC nucleofected with control vector or vector overexpressing wild-type Cx43 were plated with GFP-HUVEC in the presence of control media or media conditioned for 24 h by 231 cells. Fluorescence was analyzed after four days as in Fig. 1. Data represent the mean+/−s.e.m. of four experiments with two vSMC donors performed in triplicate or duplicate.(*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ns, not significant). c. Western analysis of vSMC nucleofected with control vector or Cx43 overexpression vector and exposed to MDA-MB-231 conditioned media for 24 h