Fig. 9

Impact of CAFs on breast cancer cell migration. CAFs were derived from the tumors of patients with different clinical characteristics. A MCF-7 cells, B MDA-MB-231 cells. CAFs were stimulated with calcitriol (cal) for 72 h prior to CM generation for 24 h. CM was applied to cancer cells immediately after wound generation. Cells were photographed at 0 and 3 h after CM application using Stream Start 1.6.1 software. Patients were classified into groups according to plasma 25(OH)D₃ levels (VD₃, < 30 ng/mL—deficient (n = 10), > 30 ng/mL—normal (n = 6)), plasma FSH levels (< 25.8 mIU/mL—premenopausal (n = 7), > 25.8 mIU/mL—postmenopausal (n = 9)) and regional or distant metastasis presence (if any—metastatic (n = 7), otherwise nonmetastatic (n = 9)). Data are presented as the mean migration distance ± SEM. Statistical analysis was carried out using Student’s t-test or Mann‒Whitney U test for single comparisons and one-way ANOVA or Kruskal‒Wallis tests for multiple comparisons. *p ≤ 0.05 compared to untreated cancer cells. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, ****p ≤ 0.001