SOX9 is a proliferation and stem cell factor in hepatocellular carcinoma and possess widespread prognostic significance in different cancer types - Fig 5

<p>Representative examples of tumour spheres in hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2)(D) and breast cancer (MCF7)(A) (D) cells. SOX9 expression has been assessed by qRT-PCR in two liver cancer cell lines (HepG2 (B) and Hep3B (C)) and in three breast cancer cell lines (MCF7 (E), BT474 (F) and SUM159 (G)) comparing parental adherent or tumour spheres. In all five tested cell lines, SOX9 was significantly higher expressed in tumour spheres (between 1.6-fold and 57-fold increased) than in parental adherent cells. Expression levels of two cancer stem cell marker (Nanog (H) and Oct4 (I)) have been determined all five cancer cell lines in adherent cells and tumour spheres. Nanog and Oct4 were significantly up-regulated in tumour spheres in comparison to normal adherent tumour cells.