Fig. 6

VPA inhibits in vivo tumor growth of EGFR/ErbB2/ErbB3-coexpressing pancreatic cancer cells in a murine model. HPAF-II and MPanc96 cells were subcutaneously injected into nude mice to establish tumor xenografts. The tumor-bearing mice (n = 3) received intraperitoneal injections of either PBS or VPA (500 mg/kg) as described in the Materials and Methods. After treatments, the mice were euthanized at day 26 post injection of tumor cells and all tumors were excised for IHC and qRT-PCR analysis. a The graphs show the tumor growth curves. Bars, S.D. b Data show the excised tumors and tumor weights from each treatment group. c Data show the representative images of the immunostainging of EGFR, ErbB2, ErbB3, Ki-67, and C-Casp-3. The IHC slides were observed by two independent personnel. The tumor cells with positive staining of EGFR, ErbB2, ErbB3, Ki-67, or C-Casp-3 were counted from three randomly selected areas in each slide. The three areas were first identified by scanning the entire slide at × 100 magnification, and then the positive-stained cells were counted at × 200 magnification using an Olympus BX40 microscope. The bar graphs show the average percent of positive staining cells in each field. Bars represent S.D. *P < 0.05 versus PBS control. **P < 0.01 versus PBS control. d, e qRT-PCR analysis of the expression levels of miR-133a, miR-133b, miR-125a, miR-125b, and miR-205 in xenograft tumors. All results were normalized with the internal control RNU6B. Bars, S.D. All data show the representative of three independent experiments