Reprogramming pancreatic stellate cells via p53 activation: A putative target for pancreatic cancer therapy
Fig 5
Stromal p53 activation reverses caPSC activation and reduces pancreatic desmoplasia in vivo.
(A) Tumor bearing mice were treated with vehicle or RG7112 (200 mg/kg) and were sacrificed. Epithelial cells (EPCAM+) and fibroblasts (PDGFRα+) were isolated from dissociated tumors by FACS. p21 and Mdm2 mRNA levels were quantified by RT-qPCR and normalized to Rplp0 mRNA. Bars represent mean +SD of 3 different mice. *, p<0.05 by two-way ANOVA. (B-C) Mice transplanted with KPC cells were treated for 15 days with Vehicle or RG7112 (200 mg/kg) starting day 8 post-transplantation. Tumors were harvested and fixed in formalin. FFPE sections were subjected to (B) IHC using an αSMA antibody and (C) Masson’s Trichrome staining. Representative images are shown on the left and quantification on the right. At least eight 15X fields were quantified using Inform 2.1 software and mean values for each tumor are plotted on the graph. *, p<0.05 by Student’s test. Scale bar, 50 μM. (D) Metascape analysis was performed on RG7112 downregulated and upregulated genes (fold change >1.4 or <0.7, adjusted p<0.05). Six of the twenty most significant canonical pathways are shown and -log(pval) are indicated. (E) Heatmap representing selected genes from the RNA-seq analysis. Data are represented as log2 fold change, RG7112 versus Vehicle.