Fig 2: Effect of glucose on MAT-MSCs phenotype in 2D-cultures with BC cells. MAT-MSCs were co-cultured—and not—with MCF7 or MDA-MB231 for 72 h in (a,b) standard/high glucose (25 mM glucose; MSC) or (c) low glucose concentration (5.5 mM; MSC LG). After 72 h, BC cells were removed while MAT-MSCs were grown for another 3 (MSC 6d) or 7 days (MSC 10d). mRNA expression levels of senescence/fibrosis markers (IL6, IL8, VEGF, CDKN2A, LMNB1, ACTA2) were determined by qPCR (see Section 2 and Supplementary Table S1. Data were normalized on the peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase A (PPIA) gene as per internal standard. Results were represented as: violin plot of 7–9 (a,c) or 3–5 (b) independent triplicate experiments showing mRNA levels of IL6, IL8, VEGF, CDKNA2, LMNB1 and ACTA2 in MAT-MSCs co-cultured with BC cells as relative expression (2-??Ct) compared to that in monocultured MAT-MSCs (control cells). In (b) monocultured cells (control cells) are represented as a dotted line. Data were analyzed using non-parametric Kruskall–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s correction for multiple comparisons. For pairwise comparisons (MSC + MCF7 vs. MSC + MDA-MB231), Mann–Whitney test was assessed. * denotes statistically significant values compared with monocultured MAT-MSCs (* adjp < 0.05; ** adjp < 0.01; *** adjp < 0.001, **** adjp < 0.0001). ç denotes statistically significant values compared with MSC + MCF7 (ç adjp < 0.05).