Effects of miR-126/126* of cytokine/chemokine expression in tumor-derived 4T1 cells. Mus musculus

In order to test the effects of metastasis suppressive miR-126/126* on primary tumor microenvironment, we designed a real-time PCR-based mouse cytokine/chemokine array containing 95 cytokines/chemokines and their receptors. Considering the possibility that production of cytokines/chemokines may be dependent on the interactions among different cell types within the tumor mass, we inoculated GFP-labeled 4T1 cells with a control vector or 4T1 cells with pri-miR-126 overexpression into the fat pad of BALB/c mice. 10 days later, we harvested the primary tumors, isolated GFP-positive cancer cells, and analyzed the expression levels of different cytokines/chemokines and their receptors in the cancer cells at the mRNA level using the cytokine array. Overall design: qPCR gene expression profiling. Equal amount total RNA from each cell line was pooled prior to gene expression analysis.