Fig 1: Proteome in stroma context; expression analysis of cancer stem cell (CSC) markers in tissue and serum. (A) Heatmap showing the expression pattern of extracellular matrix‐associated proteins. Samples and proteins arranged according to fold enrichment and arranged by treatment group and hierarchal clustering, respectively. (B) Representative pictures of hematoxylin and eosin (H and E)‐stained treatment‐naïve (TN) and neoadjuvantly treated (NAT) PDAC tissue samples. Scale bar = 200 μm. (C) Box plots showing the expression of CSC markers in TN (n = 20) versus NAT (n = 22) samples. (D) Representative pictures of immunohistochemical staining for ALDH1A1, CD44, and EpCAM. Scale bar = 100 μm. (E) Levels of ALDH1A1 and PON1 in serum samples obtained from patients in the TN (n = 17) and NAT (n = 16) groups. n = 3. For C and E, unpaired two‐tailed Student's t‐test with **P < 0.01 comparing between TN and NAT samples, error bars indicate SEM. ALDH1A1, aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A1; CD44, cluster of differentiation 44; EpCAM, epithelial cell adhesion molecule; PON1, paraoxonase 1.
Fig 2: Impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on human PDAC. Compared with treatment‐naïve (TN) tumors, the neoadjuvantly treated (NAT) PDACs showed increased expression of metabolism‐related proteins, cancer stem cell (CSC) markers, and a proportion of phosphorylated proteins. Higher levels of the CSC marker ALDH1A1 and lower levels of lactate and HDL‐cholesterol were observed in matched serum samples from patients with NAT compared with patients with TN PDAC. In addition, pancreatic cancer cells (PCCs) that survived chemotherapy expressed high levels of the CSC markers ALDH1A1, PON1, CD44, and EpCAM as compared with control untreated cells.
Supplier Page from Thermo Fisher Scientific for Human PON1 ELISA Kit