Fig. 5

Association of CDC50A+ cells with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis. A E-cadherin and vimentin expression in CDC50A⁺ OVCAR4 and CDC50A⁻ OVCAR4 cells was detected through immunofluorescence. Compared with CDC50A⁻ OVCAR4 cells, the level of E-cadherin decreased significantly in CDC50A⁺ OVCAR4 cells (33.4% vs. 82.2%, p = 0.008), and vimentin increased (73.7% vs. 29.8%, p = 0.029). E-cadherin is shown in red (middle), and vimentin (left) is shown in green. Nuclei were stained with DAPI in blue (right). Scale bar, 50 μm. The right panel shows the mean percentages of positive cells quantified from 10 confocal images. B The EMT status of sorted CDC50A + Lin- and CDC50A-Lin-cells expressing E-cadherin (upper left panel, red, 70.1% vs. 88.0%) and vimentin (lower left panel, red, 16.2% vs. 2.0%) in an EOC tumour from patient PID047. Nuclei were stained with DAPI in blue. Scale bar, 50 μm. The right panel shows the mean percentages of positive cells quantified from 10 confocal images. C Through FACS, CDC50A + Lin-populationin was higher in metastatic (omentum) than in situ ovarian tumours (PID031). D shows consistently higher frequencies of CDC50A + Lin- cells in metastatic tumours from the omentum than corresponding ovarian tumours in situ (n = 8)