Figure 1

VEGF-D overexpression promotes mouse xenograft growth. (A) RT-PCR assays reveal the presence of VEGF-D mRNA transcripts only in SKOV3 cells stably expressing VEGF-D (lane 7), not in SKOV3 cells (lane 5) or SKOV3 cells transfected with control vectors (lane 6). β-actin was used as a loading control (lane 2, SKOV3 cells, lane 3, SKOV3 cells transfected with control vector, and lane 4, SKOV3 cells stably expressing VEGF-D). (B-G) Immunostaining shows that VEGF-D is strongly expressed in the cytoplasm and nuclei of tumor cells stably expressing VEGF-D from mouse xenografts (D and G) while it is only weakly expressed in SKOV3 cells or SKOV3 cells transfected with control vectors (B, C and F). Magnification: ×400, scale bar = 200 μm. (H) Mice were inoculated subcutaneously with SKOV3, SKOV3 /pcDNA or SKOV3/VEGF-D cells. Tumor growth was monitored by measuring tumor volume post inoculation. Data are expressed as mean ± SD of three independent experiments. *P < 0.05 versus tumor xenografts bearing SKOV3 or SKOV3 transfected with control vectors.