Influence of CLL18 on chemoresistance.

<p>Cells were cultured in presence or absence of -TGFbeta or CCL18 in the concentrations indicated for 72 h. After the culture period, medium was changed and the cells were incubated with cisplatin for additional 72 hours at concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 25 µg/ml. Cell survival was measured by MTT assay. The horizontal line indicates the LD₅₀, vertical lines indicate the LD₅₀ for the respective pre-incubation condition (n = 4).</p

Figure 1

<p>Morphological changes in cells treated with CCL18 and TGFbeta: untreated A549 cells show typical epithelial morphology with close cell-cell-contacts, which are marked by white arrows (A). After treatment with 2 ng/ml -β cells changed the phenotype to a more mesenchymal morphology with prolonged cell extrusions and loosened cell-cell-contacts marked by arrowheads. (B) CCL18 also changes the cell morphology in a dose dependent manner (C [1 ng/ml] and D [10 ng/ml]) to fibroblast-like mesenchymal phenotype and loosened cell-cell-contacts marked by arrowheads.</p

CCL18 suppreses proliferation of A549 cells. (n = 7 in each group).

<p>CCL18 suppreses proliferation of A549 cells. (n = 7 in each group).</p

CCL18 induces chemotaxis in A549 lung cancer cells.

<p>Significances were calculated using paired comparison (Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test), control: untreated cells (n = 4).</p

Effects of CCL18 on the expression of EMT-related proteins (SNAIL1, E-cadherin and FSP-1) after 72 hours of treatment.

<p>All results were normalized to the untreated control. Bars summarize the results of three independent western blot analyses, in the right panel one representative blot is depicted.</p

CCL18 serum level and survival of patients with NSCLC in days from time point of diagnosis.

<p>Survival time varies significantly with different serum CCL18 levels (p<0.004).</p

Mean CCL18 levels of all T stages was significantly increased compared with controls (p<0.0002).

<p>In addition, there was a significant difference between patient groups with lowest versus the two highest T-stages.</p

Tumor classification of the cohort.

<p>Tumor classification of the cohort.</p

Patients characteristics.

<p>Patients characteristics.</p

Using a cut-off point of 83 ng/ml ROC analysis revealed an area under curve (AUC) of 0.968 (p<0.0001) indicating a high sensitivity and specificity to discriminate between healthy controls and NSCLC.

<p>Using a cut-off point of 83 ng/ml ROC analysis revealed an area under curve (AUC) of 0.968 (p<0.0001) indicating a high sensitivity and specificity to discriminate between healthy controls and NSCLC.</p