Fig. 1

Morphology of adipocytes in contact with tumor cells or close to MCF7 mammospheres. a Histological analysis of human breast tumor section containing adipocytes. Histology of breast tumor sections was revealed by hematoxylin and eosin staining. Adipocytes with small lipid droplets (yellow arrows) are preferentially observed close to the tumor cells, while those which are more distal display larger lipid droplets. (scale bar 100 μm). The two insets correspond higher magnification view of the zones indicated by the arrows. b hMADS-adipocytes or breast-adipocytes were cultured in differentiation medium for 15 days. MCF7 cells were grown as mammospheres for 7 days. Co-culture of the 2 cell-types was performed for 2 days. Oil-Red O staining reveals that the size of the lipid droplets is heterogeneous, although smaller in adipocytes adjacent to the mammospheres (green arrows). Crystal violet was used to counterstain the MCF7 cells in presence of hMADS-adipocytes. Magnification X20, scale bar 100 μM