Fig. 2

SOX4 promotes the stemness of colorectal cancer cells. a SOX4 promotes the sphere-forming capacity of colorectal cancer cells. The SOX4-overexpressing and control cells were seeded in ultra-low attachment 6 well plate. The number of spheres was counted after 10 days. b SOX4 promotes the self-renewal capacity of colorectal cancer cells on serial passage. The sphere number of indicated primary, secondary, and tertiary passaged cells was counted after 10 days. c SOX4 promotes sphere-forming cell frequency of colorectal cancer cells. SOX4-overexpressing and control cells were seeded into 96-well U-bottomed culture plates at a density of 10, 5 or 1 cells per well and cultured for 10 days. The sphere-forming cell frequency was calculated by ELDA software. d SOX4 promotes tumor-initiating cell frequency of colorectal cancer cells. SOX4-overexpressing and control cells were injected into the subcutaneous tissues of 6-week-old nude mice at a density of 21, 7, 3 cells per mouse. The number of mice developed tumors was counted after 35 days. The tumor-initiating cell frequency was calculated by ELDA software. e, f SOX4 promotes the expression of colorectal cancer stem cell markers in colorectal cancer cells. e The mRNA levels of CD44 and CD133 in SOX4-overexpressing and control HCT-116 and HT-29 cells were analyzed by qRT-PCR. f The surface protein levels of CD44 and CD133 in SOX-4 expressing and control HCT-116 cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. Data are represented as mean ± s.d.; Data are represented as mean ± s.d.; *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001; two-tailed Student’s t-test