Fig 2: Association of preoperative SCF plasma level and tumor volume in the GBM patients

Fig 3: (A) The dot plot of preoperative SCF plasma levels of the GBM patients (n = 58), patients with nonglial tumors (n = 20), and healthy controls (n = 30). (B) Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) plot to illustrate the predictive value of the SCF plasma level for discrimination between the GBM and healthy controls. (C) ROC curve to illustrate the diagnostic ability of the SCF plasma level for discrimination between the GBM patients and patients with nonglial tumors

Fig 4: Knockdown of SCF and blockage of c-kit in LNC induced loss of niche function for LSC. Single limbal epithelial progenitor cells (LEPC) were co-cultured with LNC, SCF(-)-LNC (SCF knock-down LNC), c-Kit inhibitor ISCK03 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) or BMMSC on 3D Matrigel in MESCM for ten days before subjected to morphological analysis by phase-contrast microscopy (A, upper panel, scale bar = 25 µm) and immunostaining of P63a and CK12 (A, lower panel, nuclear counterstained by Hoechst 33342, scale bar = 25 µm) and qRT-PCR for transcription expression of P63a and CK12 (B, n = 3, *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01,respectively).

Fig 5: LNCs express more SCF than LEPCs. Cross sections of normal limbus were subjected to immunostaining of Vim and CK15 (A). Nuclear counterstained by Hoechst 33342. bar = 50 µm. LEPCs were isolated by dispase overnight digestion at 4 °C and LNCs isolated by collagenase overnight digestion at 4 °C, and then real-time PCR and immunostaining of SCF performed (B and C). Scale bars = 25 µm.