Fig. 3

CD36 expression/activity promotes the maintenance of an EMT-like CSC phenotype. A, normalized MFE (%) of engineered MDAMB361-shSCR, MDAMB361-shCD36 (1) and MDAMB361-shCD36 (2) cells cultured under MS-promoting conditions for 7 days. The data were normalized to the MFE (%) of MDAMB361-shSCR cells. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs (n = 5); significance was calculated using two-tailed paired Student’s t test. B-C, summary of data showing the percentages of CD44^High/CD24^Low (B) and ALDH + (C) CSCs among engineered MDAMB361-shSCR, MDAMB361-shCD36 (1) and MDAMB361-shCD36 (2) cells, as evaluated by FACS analysis. The values were normalized to the percentage of CSCs among MDAMB361-shSCR cells. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs (n = 3 in B and n = 5 in C); significance was calculated using two-tailed paired Student’s t test. D-E, Normalized MFEs (%) (Left) and representative MS pictures (Right) of EFM192A (D) and HCC1569 cells (E) transiently transfected with scrambled siRNA (siSCR) or CD36-targeting siRNA (siCD36) for 72 h. After transfection, the cells were cultured under MS-promoting conditions for 7 days. The data were normalized to the MFE (%) of EFM192A- and HCC1569-siSCR cells. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs (n = 3); significance was calculated using two-tailed paired Student’s t test. F-G, summary of data showing the percentages of CD44^High/CD24^Low CSCs among transiently transfected EFM192A-siSCR and EFM192A-siCD36 cells (F) and HCC1569-siSCR and HCC1569-siCD36 cells (G), as evaluated by FACS analysis. The values were normalized to the percentage of CD44^High/CD24^Low CSCs among siSCR cells. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs (n = 4); significance was calculated using two-tailed paired Student’s t test. H-I, summary of data showing the percentages of CD44^High/CD24^Low CSCs (H) and ALDH + CSCs (I) among HCC1954, MDAMB361, EFM192A and HCC1569 cells treated with DMSO or SSO (100 μM) for 48 h, as evaluated by FACS analysis. The values were normalized to the percentage of CSCs among DMSO-treated cells. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs (n = 4); significance was calculated using two-tailed paired Student’s t test. J-M summary of data showing the percentages of CD44^High/CD24^Low CSCs in HCC1954 (J), MDAMB361 (K), EFM192A (L) and HCC1569 (M) cells cultured in media supplemented with FBS depleted (FBS-FA-) or not (FBS-FA +) of FA for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h. The values were normalized to the percentage of CSCs in FBS-FA + cultured cells. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs (n = 5–6); significance was calculated using two-tailed paired Student’s t test