Figure 3. Cell density regulates PgR expression and EL phenotype.
(a) TUBO cells re-express PGR at low cell density. (b) TUBO cells grown at high density up-regulate miR-9-5p. (c) Expression of miR-9-5p in early lesion (EL) and primary tumour (PT) samples. (d) PT and TUBO cells generate the EL-signature only when grown at low density. (e) Migration and sphere-formation of four human cell lines grown at low and high densities and treated with PIPS (WNT4+RANKL) or progesterone (See also Extended Data Fig 5; error bars are Mean ± SD). (f) Number of lung macro-metastases after tumour formation from transplanted tumour pieces (1 mm3; high density) or 50 spheres in 40 μl matrigel (low density) and PT surgery (Mann-Whitney test; median). (g) Mechanisms of local tumour and distant metastasis formation as derived from in vitro and in vivo (see Fig 4) data. *, p≤0.05; ***, p≤0.001.