Fig. 4

Perturbation of tumor microenvironment in Il1rn knockout (KO)-derived tumors. (A) Immune profile analysis in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Viable CD45-positive populations (CD45⁺FVD⁻) were collected for further analysis by several markers (CD4, CD8, Ly6G, and CD11b). FVD: a fixable viability dye to monitor cell viability. (B & C) CD45⁺FVD⁻ population was analyzed by two combinations (CD4 vs. CD8, panel B; Ly6G vs. CD11b, panel C). Tumors collected from mice injected with either parental 6606PDA cells (Ctrl) or the Il1rn knockout clone (KO#A) were assigned to two groups (exp.1 & exp.2, n = 2–3 tumors per set). Increased CD8⁺ populations in clone #A-derived tumors were labeled red while reduced CD11b⁺Ly6G⁻ were green. (D) Relative mRNA levels in the Ctrl and Il1rn KO (KO#A) tumors. Selected mouse genes were analyzed by qPCR. n = 3. Student’s t-test was performed. (E) Comparison of human galectin-9 paralogs (LGALS9, LGALS9B, and LGALS9C) mRNA expressions between normal pancreas (Healthy, n = 328) and PDA (n = 182). Student’s t-test was performed. (F) Correlation analysis of human IL-1Ra (IL1RN) and galectin-9 (LGALS9) mRNA expression using the PDA dataset from TCGA (n = 182). r: correlation coefficient. TPM: transcript per million. * p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01. **** p < 0.0001